


A Sky Underground

by fishstixx



Category: DreamSMP, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dehumanization, Found Family, Gaslighting, Gen, Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hybrid TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hybrids, Kidnapping, Stockholm Syndrome, Traumatized Tommyinnit (Video Blogging RPF), Unreliable Narrator, both boys are being manipulated by dream but only one of them realizes it, referenced 2b2t, sapnap’s relationship with tommy was supposed to be minor but it really kinda takes center stage, violence will happen that is a promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:14:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishstixx/pseuds/fishstixx
Summary: Tommy had been a play piece in man’s game before his life with Dream. He still remembered it- thrust into a ring under the name Bloodletter to gnash and claw and burn and slay others like him for an opportunity to live another day.Even now, years later, he would sometimes sit in one of his hidden little wicker hammocks, scratching his claws desperately and endlessly against the exposed metal of his glorified cage to dull them. He would never again be like that, the mutt kit stripped of his innocence with blood splattering his face and copper in his teeth.-or, the au where dream ‘rescues’ tommy, only to lock him away again and use him as a glorified attack dog. tommy is an electricity hybrid of dubious origins training under sapnap. eventual sbi rescue maybe and found family because canon failed me
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Dream SMP Ensemble & TommyInnit, No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, TommyInnit & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 328
Kudos: 1232





	1. Introduction

Never in his life had Tommy ever voiced his thoughts regarding the conflict of animal versus man, and he didn’t believe that he ever would.

It was a funny thing, albeit a painful one. Man thought the creatures of the forest beneath them. Tommy knew better.

Maybe that was because he wasn’t entirely human. Sometimes he was thankful for it, sometimes he cursed the stars for muddling his bloodline and leaving him to the mercy of Dream. Not that he wasn’t grateful for that mercy; because he was, verily so. It wasn’t every day a human extended a hand to a hybrid and welcomed them into their heart.

Man worked for their own self-interest. It was their nature. An animal would fight only if they had to in order to live, would kill only when the spilling of blood was the sole resolution. Man did both of those things and worse for his own entertainment, for power, while the badgers and the rabbits were happy to rest in dirt burrows with no belongings of their own.

Tommy had been a play piece in man’s game before his life with Dream. He still remembered it- thrust into a ring under the name Bloodletter to gnash and claw and burn and _slay_ others like him for an opportunity to live another day.

Even now, years later, he would sometimes sit in one of his hidden little wicker hammocks desperately scratching his claws endlessly against the exposed metal of his _glorified cage_ to dull them. He would never again be like that, the mutt kit stripped of his innocence with blood splattering his face and copper in his teeth.

Tommy didn’t know whether he’d been bred to be a ringfighter or stolen for it, and he didn’t know which was worse. He only knew that Dream had rescued him, the scared and angry child who knew only warfare, and moved him to a safe place. Kept him locked up, yes, but it was safe.

Tommy didn’t know the outside and didn’t know that he wanted to. There was a lot he didn’t know, but he did fully believe that this was good. This was home.

It was a wide-open dome, planted lush with jungle trees and underground foliage that Tommy could hide and dive and nestle into. There was no weather but there was dirt to dig in, there were structures, there was a comfortable place to sleep and plenty of things to keep him entertained. He was lonely, yes, but he was alive and not being forced to spill blood.

Up in the jungle trees laid what he called his room. It wasn’t really a room- there were no walls and it was open to the sky- but there were guard rails, a floor and roof, bookshelves, and a wicker hammock suspended from the ceiling that was piled high with blankets and pillows. His ~~_nest_~~ bed was how Tommy knew how long he had been here- once a year, on what he presumed was his birthday (or, rather, rescue day), Dream would gift him a blanket from somewhere new. Tommy could count six of these special blankets, all handwoven and smelling of Dream and home.

Really, where he lived was pleasant. It was always warm, and green, and lit with a soft glow that replicated sunshine before dimming to a much lesser ambient blue lighting for a few hours. Tommy was thankful for the day/night cycle. Dream _taught_ him to be thankful for everything given when he removed the cyclical lighting changes for what Tommy had counted to be twenty-five sleeps.

He didn’t actually know how long that had been because the light cycle came back during a sleep and he woke up to an imitation-night. The conclusion he had come to was that his internal clock was fucked, even though he hadn’t slept much at all during that time and spent most of his hours clawing at the metal walls of his home until his hands bled.

Dream visited every few days. Tommy ran up to him and greeted him with happy chirps and chitters, and if he was good he got rewarded. Tommy did his best to be good, and clearly was succeeding because Dream hadn’t turned a hand against him or even raised his voice in months.

That was why he was confused when Dream returned different.

Tommy had been digging when he heard the heavy clanging of the metal door and scampered out of his hole, diving through the leaves and emerging by the entrance of his little habitat. Usually Dream opened his arms for a hug, but at the sight of Tommy he lifted a fist. Tommy stilled at the command, hands twitching and itching with the desire to rush forward and ask for contact. 

“Stay,” Dream instructed, and Tommy did.

A moment later a second person stepped in, and Tommy blanked. He was shorter than Dream, stouter, and dressed in all black and white with a bandanna tying his hair back. It was the first person other than Dream that he had seen in... years, maybe. At least two blankets’ passing.

“Oh my god,” The new person gasped, and Tommy’s hands twitched. “What the fuck kind of hybrid is he?”

“Nobody really knows, I’ve asked around about it.” Dream shrugged. Tommy waited for the fist to lower so he could move. “He’s not a clean fifty-fifty mix like most hybrids, his bloodline is _that_ muddy.” 

“And I thought the commune was bad. This is- he’s an actual mongrel.”

Tommy could feel the increasing static in the air, radiating off of him in waves. He swallowed down the electricity rising in his throat and blinked at Dream expectantly.

When Dream realized Tommy was waiting for him, he lowered his hand and shooed the hybrid off. “Go on, I’ll call you when I’m done.”

They continued to talk about him as he slunk dejected back off into the underbrush.

They were right calling him a mongrel, too. He had not one honorable part of him. _Tommy_ didn't even know what all he was made up of, just bits and pieces of hunches gleaned from the censored book collection that he had available to him.

Weasel, ferret, polecat. Mustelid, badger, skunk. Mink, otter, marten. Those were the names of some of the creatures that had stood out to him, making up the scrawling list that had been etched into the wood of the floorboards beneath his bed with careful claws. He had no clue how many of those creatures he actually had any relation to, or if they were even accurate guesses at all. For all he knew, none of those animals could be close.

The electricity that sparked and burned beneath his skin betrayed the fact that he had some hostile mob blood, too. He didn’t know what species, or what kind of corruption must have happened in his family tree for his veins to run with lightning, but they did.

Dream didn’t like it when sparks fell from his mouth, warned him that should the trees catch fire he’d burn with them, so Tommy swallowed the energy and did his best to ignore the way it made him ache.

Sometimes when Dream was gone, Tommy would shoot little bolts of blue from his fingertips towards the wall, watching it travel upwards before fizzling away into nothing. He could feel the static in the air increase and the hair on his arms raise; once, he had even shocked himself by touching the metal wall of the dome before the electricity faded. All incidents in which he felt so unabashedly alive and happy.

At least until later, when he remembered Dream’s words and felt bad for risking it. Dream was generous, gave him a nice little home and things to do in the form of dirt and trees and arboreal swinging bridges and books.

Tommy liked his book collection the most. They spilled out of the shelf on the wall across his bed, dog-eared on pages of nether mobs and weasels that caught his attention. The history books were fun as well, even if they were few and far between. The books were special, picked out specifically for him, and Tommy had yet to find one that he didn’t appreciate.

He was unwilling to go back to his digging now that his spirits had been more or less killed and his hands were too dirty to dare touch one of those books, so he clambered up the rope ladder to his bedroom loft. His hands found the blankets piled on his bed and he set to meticulously rearranging them. It was his nest, and his nest had to be perfect.

He didn’t know how long he kept making minute changes to the placement of the blankets before he heard Dream’s beckon. As quickly as he was able, Tommy scampered back down to the ground and up to Dream. His protector, his caretaker. He smiled.

“We need to talk.”

Tommy’s smile fell. A quick glance around confirmed that the other person was no longer present.

“Did I do something wrong?” He tried, angling his chin down so that he was looking up at Dream. The indirect nature of the eye contact felt a little… safer, like the gaze of the other man wouldn’t bore holes into him and sear burning marks across his skin.

“No. You did everything right, actually.” A hand fell upon Tommy’s shoulder and he couldn’t help but swell at the praise, the gentle warmth of the contact making him lean into Dream for more. More, more, more. He craved it. Dream pulled away and Tommy deflated.

He waited for Dream to continue. He knew the silence would be better received than an inquiry, Dream always did prefer him to be quiet.

“Things are getting dangerous for me though, Tommy, and I need your help.”

Tommy stilled and looked up at Dream, scanning the other’s expression for any hint of playfulness. As usual, he found none. He already had a hunch regarding what was expected of him.

“You want me to protect you.” Tommy gritted out, struggling to keep his tone matter-of-fact and not accusatory. Dream’s expression took a dangerous edge and the hand on his shoulder returned, now a painful vice keeping him close by instead of affectionate as it had been.

“A small favor considering all I’ve done for you,” Dream hummed sweetly, and suddenly Tommy was guilty. He dropped his gaze to his feet. “Besides, if things are dangerous for me, they’ll be dangerous for you. If not for me, do it for yourself.”

“Okay.”

Tommy would have said yes anyway, but now the agreement felt like a necessity and not a decision. The hybrid swallowed down the bile in his throat and glanced at the other.

“Sapnap will be helping you with your- _fighting_ skills. You were an excellent warrior last I saw, but that was a long, long time ago. I’ve let you rest for too long.”

“Thank you.” Tommy replied impulsively, mechanically.

Dream nodded, seemingly satisfied, and let his hands fall. After a moment of deliberation, he reached into his bag and produced a book. Tommy studied it as it was pressed into his hands.

_Warfare and the Employment of Supernatural Abilities Thereof_

“Study.” Dream instructed Tommy. He said nothing else before whisking out of the area, the heavy door shooting metallic reverberations along the floor. Tommy could feel it send the ground vibrating beneath his feet.

It seems he had found the first book he wasn’t euphoric receiving.


	2. Conductor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the spar.
> 
> cw electrocution

A day later Tommy was thrust into a world that he did not want to partake in.

Dream had returned and, for the first time since bringing him in, led Tommy out of the doors of his ~~cage~~ home. He didn’t bring the hybrid above ground.

( _“What a silly thought Tommy, you don’t need to go up just for training. Some other time, when you’re ready.”)_

Tommy had never realized that the tunnels outside of his dome were so… convoluted. The metal halls echoed with their footsteps, and occasionally they would pass rooms with their door slightly ajar. Tommy never understood the items that were in them other than the chests, but some of the rooms contained a golden glow that endlessly enraptured him. Dream just kept prodding him like they were making their way along a cattle run.

Finally they came across a set of double doors, much larger and even heavier than the ones Tommy had grown accustomed to. He couldn’t help but swallow thickly.

Tommy was thrust into a new dome- but unlike the last, this one was not at all pleasant. It was empty and metal, holding none of the dirt or trees or painted sky that he had grown accustomed to.

On the far side of that dome stood a black, white, and recklessly grinning figure.

 _Sapnap,_ his mind supplied.

Dream waved them off and then disappeared behind closed doors, leaving Tommy alone with this stranger to take in the new area. The air was cool, which could likely be attributed to the factory-grade fan embedded in the ceiling above them, and the air was empty. No static or anything of the sort, resulting in a feel that was weirdly empty of anything. Tommy had lived underground for years now and had never encountered air that felt so artificial.

Sapnap grinned. “Ready?”

Tommy wasn’t given the liberty of being allowed to answer. Sapnap’s hands were thrust out before him and suddenly a great ball of fire was being shot towards the hybrid.

_What the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK-_

Tommy dove down and to the side, only barely managing to escape flares of orange that singed the fur of his tail. He rounded on Sapnap, wild-eyed and in disbelief.

“What the hell!” He shouted, because Sapnap looked human but _humans shouldn’t be able to do that._

“Come on, Electricity Boy! Show me what you got!”

“Dream says I can’t, I’m not supposed to! I’ll catch something on fire!”

Sapnap _cackled_ and it sent a chill down Tommy’s spine. The latter sprung up just as flames shot out in a red blanket across the floor.

“Nothing to catch on fire here, Sparky! Shoot!”

Tommy hadn’t done anything like that in a long, _long_ time. He was running out of options though; Sapnap was advancing, hands held out on either side of him. Flames danced along his fingers, dangerous daggers of death and heat.

There was no electricity in the air for Tommy to lean on, which made it a little difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. His insides felt like they were buzzing in a way that he knew meant pent up energy, and he drew on it.

Tommy’s hand swiped through the air, sending a wildly crackling blue arc of lightning out and skittering uselessly through the air. It hit the far wall and dissolved, making Sapnap’s hair stand on end with the newfound static in the atmosphere.

“Weak!”

Tommy hadn’t known Sapnap but for a few minutes and yet the lone word still cut into him like a heated blade. Another jab of fire was sent his way, and Tommy was ready this time.

He danced to the side and away from the attack, bouncing on his toes like a hunting stoat. His heart felt like it was pumping with energy over blood, and when he shoved his fist forward, bolts of stronger and more formidable electricity shot forward.

Electricity moves significantly faster than fire. While Tommy had time to dodge his opponent’s attacks, Sapnap did not have long enough to do the same.

The blue flashed forward in the blink of an eye before disappearing, and Tommy only knew that it struck its target from experience. Sapnap froze, muscles seizing up as the current of lightning pulsed through him, and the air gained a sour twang with the scent of burning hair.

It hadn't been a very strong attack, all things considered. There had simply been too much time in between Tommy's experience in the fighting arena and this spar. Still, even with the relatively low voltage, Tommy had been furious enough that his shock held enough power to force Sapnap into stagnation for a few precious moments.

Tommy stalked forward as Sapnap crumpled to the ground. The latter lifted his head, smoke curling from his lips, and he smiled.

What Tommy was expecting was another attack, not for Sapnap to heave himself up and clap a hand down on the boy's shoulder. So he flinched.

The touch didn't hurt, didn't tighten into a painful clench or start to burn, so slowly he let the tenseness drain from his shoulders as he looked at the other.

Sapnap was smiling at him. "You know, that wasn't half-bad for a gutter rat."

The backwards compliment still made Tommy swell with pride. His ears flicked forward, the tip of his long tail happily flicking back and forth in a prideful blur of golden-brown. Sapnap made an amused sound, regarding him like one might look at an overzealous puppy despite just getting electrocuted, and stepped away again.

Sapnap's stance squared off and Tommy dropped back down into a hunter's crouch to mirror him. Sapnap straightened up and began to approach, making Tommy step backwards in preparation for an attack. The older man tutted.

"Stay still."

Tommy latched onto that 'stay' command and froze, holding stock still even as Sapnap circled around behind him.

Hands were on his arms, a foot sliding between Tommy's own to nudge them apart, and suddenly Tommy felt a whole lot lighter as his stance was fixed. It was a little peculiar, as he wasn't used to it, but he felt more grounded. More stable.

Tommy looked down at his feet, then his fists, as Sapnap stalked around to stand across from him. Tommy lifted his gaze- dancing sharp blue, just like the electricity he could summon from somewhere deep within him- and locked eyes with Sapnap.

Sapnap was sizing up Tommy. “Your attacks are weak. We need to fix that.”

“How?”

“Well- I’m not an electricity hybrid, so it’ll take some experimentation seeing what’s similar between us and what’s different, but let’s start with where you feel your element.”

“Everywhere.” Tommy said instinctively, and it was true. There was not one part of him that had a more concentrated charge (except for his mouth when he got angry, making his fangs crackle with lightning sharp enough to instantly cauterize any bite inflicted) than the rest of him. It evenly beat throughout his whole body, along his nervous system and drumming a fizzing vibration into his fingers. Sapnap seemed to consider this.

“Huh. Well… I have, like- a fire, low in my gut, and I draw on that and redirect it to my fingertips. Lightning moves in ways that fire doesn’t and follows the path of least resistance instead of just going up. Tell me, Tommy, where’s it going?”

“Outward.” Another immediate answer. His element was a part of himself, he knew instinctively the way that it moved. He may not have known how it started- and how could he, when electricity was constantly moving by nature, never staying in one place or bothering to remember how it came to be- but it didn’t much matter. He knew that it buzzed throughout him in his entirety, not stopping or slowing even as he slept. “Towards my fingers, down my toes, up my throat until it gets swallowed down again and the whole thing starts again. It’s cyclical, it doesn’t stop.” 

Sapnap studied him, then motioned for Tommy to face the wall. Soon Sapnap had moved up so that he was standing beside Tommy. “I want you to try to catch it. Don’t contain it, but charge it as it builds up in your fingertips before letting it out. Use its natural momentum to collect more lightning instead of just letting out whatever’s there in the moment.”

Tommy squinted. That was a lot of words to dissect about a part of him that had been more or less repressed until now. He honed in on the sparks beneath his skin- his life force, his _energy-_ and followed its journey to his fingertips before trying to dam it. Only temporarily, only enough to do what was asked of him.

Still, it _hurt._ Maybe that was because his body had never done it before, maybe it was because he didn’t really know what he was doing, maybe he wasn’t entirely immune to his own electricity- but it hurt. His fingertips burned and sparked until he let the lightning free from beneath his skin, erupting out of the dull of his abraded claws.

Tommy shook his hands out and panted as the lightning pinged off to the opposite wall. His claws- scratched down to beveled flat-tops against the metal wall of his home, past the quick until they bled- began oozing red as the electricity erupting from them freed the scabs as well as the dirt caked on from all the digging he did. The ache was dull and steady like he’d jabbed the tops of his nails down against a flat surface.

“Very good,” Sapnap said anyway, paying no mind to Tommy or his wounds.

Had the tips of his fingers been flesh instead of keratin, he was sure that they’d be split and bloody.

Maybe if he let his nails grow out again, it wouldn’t hurt like it had. Tommy didn’t know if he wanted to do that. He _already_ didn’t want to be doing this, he realized, despite the way the praise gave him a feeling of warmth that he was so deprived of.

Tommy bit his tongue as Sapnap inspected the wall, a seam corrupted and partially melted where the attack had landed. Nothing too serious, but it was the only noticeable mark on the wall despite the fact that electricity had been shot thrice now.

Sapnap turned around and suddenly seemed to notice the drops of red at Tommy’s feet. He sauntered over and took the boy’s hands in his own, lifting them up to inspect them like one might inspect a sheep to market.

“Dream!” Sapnap shouted suddenly. Tommy cringed at the sudden volume and the doors wheezed as they opened.

A green figure was striding across the battle arena. Tommy gravitated towards him and away from Sapnap, closing the distance until Dream was near enough to drape an arm over Tommy’s shoulders.

He was being guided out of the area, back into that labyrinth of empty metal halls and towards his home. Dream spoke.

“We’ve talked about this, Tommy, you can’t keep whittling your claws down. You’re hurting yourself.”

Dream’s tone was sweet as honey, brotherly and gentle, but the rebellious part of Tommy that he’d been trying to squash for years reared its head and bared its fangs. _Something’s wrong. This is wrong._

Tommy internally scolded himself. There was nothing wrong with Dream telling him not to obsessively scratch his own claws down to near-nothing. It was destructive and the man had every right to correct that behavior.

_Just a little off, like hail in the springtime._

_Shush._

Dream gave him a withering look and Tommy realized he had said that last word out loud. Vocalizing that he had just been arguing with himself would sound crazy, so he took the slap on the wrist and dropped his gaze.

Dream took Tommy into a different room, just a short distance down from his ~~cage~~ ~~den~~ home. It was only a bit larger than a janitor’s closet, shelves lined top to bottom with items needed to sustain a healthy human being while not being necessary enough to keep in the dome. Dream perused the shelves before finding a small jar of salve and taking it in a hand.

Dream grabbed Tommy’s wrist and pressed his thumb into the center of his palm with a pointer over his knuckles so that the boy’s fingers extended. He unscrewed the lid to the jar, one-handed yet managing to not be awkward in his movements, and began applying small dollops to the exposed vein of each quick.

Small, circular bandages were applied oddly to the tip of every flattened claw, and then gloves were pulled over Tommy’s hands to keep them in place. The boy whined.

“If you don’t want to have to wear gloves, stop filing your claws.” Dream scolded lightly. Tommy hushed up.

As Dream led him back into his ~~cage~~ ~~cell~~ ~~enclosure~~ home, he patted Tommy’s back once more.

“No digging or anything that’ll mess up the dressing. Keep reading, buddy.” Dream’s farewell felt purely customary, and the door closed behind Tommy with a bang.


	3. Stars in the Heart

Tommy’s training with Sapnap continues. He doesn’t like it; but he also _does_ , because the spars just make him feel so _alive_ even if he had wanted to put his background of fights and murder behind him _._ He gets burned, Sapnap gets shocked, and they brawl in that metal room but only until first blood. 

(Then, unlike in his childhood home, he gets to get his wounds treated and then go sleep in what he thinks is an actual bed.)

He’s getting better at it, too. He’s lasting longer in those fights, and Sapnap starts adding more menial strength exercises that Tommy still enjoys because it's time spent with a human being.

Tommy’s arms were powerful from all the climbing he did, and Sapnap takes exactly one hook to the jaw before deciding that Tommy can handle upgrading to a weapon.

He grips the sword tightly in both fists, unused to the odd balance of the blade so it dips downwards toward the ground. His fingers are laced together so tightly that he can feel some of the lightning get temporarily stuck and begin to circle warm loops in the tips of them until finding the out.

“Don’t hold it like that,” Sapnap says, and there’s a pop when he touches the sword’s hilt to fix Tommy’s grip. He jerks his hand back like he’s been burned and Tommy notices the hair of his arm standing on end.

“Sorry,” He apologizes, but Sapnap only shrugs and seems to consider some grand secret that Tommy doesn’t know about.

“Don’t worry about it. Didn’t hurt, just scared me a little. Now, if you’re going to hold it with both hands like that, your left hand needs to be around the very end of the handle. Your right should be at the top.”

Tommy fixes his grip. Sapnap nods his approval. The tips of Tommy’s fangs peek out over his bottom lip as he grins.

“Now- Like this.” Sapnap drew his own sword and gave a demonstrative swipe. Tommy mimicked him, using his left hand to help lever the blade’s angle, and Sapnap nods. “Good.”

Tommy usually doesn’t talk much during these sessions except to ask questions (because he’s got a sour feeling that Dream is somehow watching), so Sapnap continues the lesson without any input from the boy. “Over by the door. Go fetch what’s in that box.”

Content to have a job, Tommy sets his sword on the ground and happily scampers over to the aforementioned chest. Inside, he finds armor of wood unlike anything he’d ever handled before.

He gathered up the armor in his arms and trotted back to the other. Sapnap gave his hair a praising ruffle and took one of the two chestplates. “Take the other and put it on, Sparky, we’re going to try a swordfight.”

Visions of battle axes, diamond and glistening with enchantments, flashed in his peripheral. Suddenly he felt like a small child again, silhouetted in fire and sticky with blood in a way that would poison the mind of even the most saged adults. 

He lifted the chestplate, sliding it over his head and struggling to strap it on with the newfound tremble in his hands. Sapnap waits.

Finally he gets it on without help and turns to Sapnap. He barely has time to blink before Sapnap’s blade is coming down at him.

Unprepared and still shaky in the hands, his sword clashes with Sapnap’s and the impact sends the weapon immediately out of his grasp. Tommy blinks, distant, as it clatters across the floor.

“Come on, bud.” Sapnap frowns, lowering his weapon. “You can do better than that.”

Sapnap doesn’t sound disappointed, just a little sad and maybe concerned, but it still weighs down like wet sand in his chest. Tommy lowers himself to the cool metal of the ground and reaches for the sword.

Sapnap goes a little easier with the next swipe. Something about being on the defensive makes wielding the weapon feel a little less suffocating, so as he progresses with his parries and blocks he begins to breathe a little easier.

“Good job.” Sapnap praises when Tommy manages to knock his sword out of his grip in a clean disarm, and the boy manages a smile.

They go on like that until both parties are too worn out to keep going at each other. Sapnap moves to sit cross-legged on the ground, and Tommy lingers awkwardly until he gets a gesture to join.

As soon as he’s on the ground, he fumbles to rip off the chestplate. There’s a line pressed into the wood, just over his heart, where he’d failed to block a blow and Sapnap had ‘killed’ him. He was sure that the impact of the attack had left a bruising mark even with the presence of the training armor.

“What’s all that about?” Sapnap asks as Tommy kicks the wood as far away from him as he could. Tommy swallows.

“Dream says not to talk about that kinda thing. Please don’t ask me things I’ll get in trouble for.”

There it is, that funny little look Sapnap gives him when he knows something Tommy doesn’t. It makes the younger scowl, and unintentionally a shock of static shoots across the floor. It makes Sapnap jump.

“Dream’s not here, you can tell me.”

Tommy looks over his shoulder, towards those heavy doors, and Sapnap continues his attempt to appease the doubtfulness. “There’s a room connected to this one with a window that we can’t see out of but lets him see in, yes, but he doesn’t stay there the whole time that we train. He’s got better things to do than watch us hit each other for hours.”

“But he pops in?” Tommy presses, and Sapnap rolls his eyes.

“It’s one-way glass, not mesh. Even if he’s here, he can’t hear us.”

Tommy looked down to his hands. If it had been a less harmless question he would have definitely clammed up by now. “Maybe I’ve just been stabbed too many times to be able to like swords.”

“Being stabbed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I would think that it makes it _less_ scary. Then you have the experience.”

“I was little. Babies an’ shit- if something bad happens to ‘em, they don’t get braver. They hold onto it into adulthood and shake about it. I read about it in a psy-co-lo-gy book once.” Tommy enunciated each syllable oddly. He was unused to conversation, nevermind one long enough to let him use the bigger words he’d only ever read and not heard.

Sapnap was busy snickering about the thought of babies holding knives while Tommy’s eyes glazed over with musings of trauma. Trauma, that was a funny thing. Each of the books that he had on it treated the idea differently, so Tommy didn’t know how to feel about it. Considering it made his brain go all flip-floppy like it did when he stayed up late thinking about Dream. 

He had trauma from his time before Dream, and that was okay because he was safe with the other now. He didn’t have trauma, he just woke up crying because he yearned for the idea of weather and letting water drip from his eyes was the closest thing he could get to rain. The books he had liked rain, so Tommy did too. It meant life or some shit. That’s not trauma. Everybody wants things that they can’t have.

Tommy realized that Sapnap had been talking to him. “What was that?”

“I asked if you’ve ever explored the halls.”

“No. Dream escorts me from here to my home and then back in the mornings.”

“That’s silly. The whole place is guarded, it’s not like you could get out anyways.”

“I don’t _want_ out.”

“Exactly, that’s why I said ’anyways’. Come on, We’re going on a trip.”

Sapnap started to get up, but Tommy hesitated. He looked up at his ~~_friend_~~ mentor, expression wide and confused.

“But Dream says I don’t need to go outside.”

Sapnap extended a hand for Tommy, who leaned back doubtfully and curled his tail around himself.

“We’re not going outside, just on a tromp through the bunker. It’ll be fun.”

 _Bunker?_ Tommy had never heard this place referred to as a bunker before. There was the dome, the arena, and the halls. Nowhere else existed to him.

He took Sapnap’s hand.

Sapnap's face split into a wolfish and dangerous grin as he hauled Tommy up and rounded on his heels to pull the blond to the doors. He stopped, pressed his hand to a silver plate on the wall, and when a click sounded he shoved one of the doors open.

Tommy kept on Sapnap's heels as they turned left instead of right out the arena in a direction that Tommy had never been before. The hallways were dim, lights sparse so that there was plenty of distance for shadows to stretch, but Sapnap's steps were confident so he picked something else to worry about instead.

"Are you sure I won't get in trouble for this?" Tommy whisper-yelled. If his ‘not-been-hit’ streak was broken because Sapnap dragged him through this maze, he'd be _pissed_.

"Relax. If you never get out except for when we need you to electrocute stuff, you'll have the most boring teenage years of anybody else on earth."

Tommy didn't say anything despite his internal conflict about the expected experience of hybrid versus human adolescence.

As they reached another branch in the hallway, Sapnap shushed Tommy despite the fact that the latter had been navigating on silent paws with his jaws clamped shut. Sapnap leaned forward and peered around the corner.

It must've been empty because the elder male disappeared with a wave to follow. Tommy pranced after him with mounting excitement.

Around that corner was a dark room. There was an odd round table of stone in the center, engraved with a white X. One of the letter’s arms were red whereas the rest were white. That wasn’t what Tommy was most interested in, though, no.

The ceiling arched just like his home and the arena, but this room was significantly smaller than any of those places. The floor was regular cement, but every other surface making up the walls and ceiling were a deep, rich navy. Small pinpricks of light illuminated the area, little white shards of glowing _something_ that made Tommy’s eyes light up. Sapnap rounded on him, grinning.

“When I was younger, this was one of my favorite rooms.” He bragged, reaching out to touch the wall. “So I figured I’d show you this one first.”

“What _is_ it?” Tommy gaped, because despite the vastness of his book collection, nothing there could prepare him for this.

“It’s like an observatory, kinda, except we’re underground and the stars are not so we have this. The lights move with the real stars, it helps us track the days and things like that. Space magic.”

“How do they move?” Tommy asked, finally brave enough to bombard Sapnap with all the questions he’d been thinking of this whole time. And that was the one at the front of his mind, because he pressed his hands against the wall and _that was definitely solid cement._

“You have electricity powers, I have fire powers, one of our builders is someone who can tap into his magic for engineering. It’s the magic that keeps this whole place turning, Tommy, and it’s _your_ magic that’ll help us grow.”

Tommy looked over at Sapnap, who had moved next to him to look up at the ceiling. The stars reflected in his eyes, and Tommy was _proud_. Proud that he could be useful, proud that he could assist these people who wrangled the sun and the stars and lived underground like it was no different than on the surface.

“Of course.” He whispered, and Sapnap rested a hand on his shoulder. Tommy did not flinch.

“Come on, let’s get back before anybody realizes we’re gone.”

The boy nodded and trailed after Sapnap as they retreated back towards the arena. This time, Tommy stared down as he walked so he’d remember the way to the not-observatory.

Dream was there waiting for them at the arena doors.

“I see you two left,” Dream said cooly, and Tommy tried to ignore the fact that his tone sounded like it did when he thought he had just caught Tommy doing something wrong. “Where’ve you been?”

“I was showing him around.” Sapnap shrugged. Tommy tried not to look guilty as the older two talked.

“He didn’t try to get out?”

“No, I figured letting him walk around a little would be good. He doesn’t want to leave the bunker, Dream, and even if he did he couldn’t. No harm in letting him explore a little.”

“Mm. Where’d you go?”

“The Underground Observatory.”

“There’s like a billion rooms, and _that’s_ where he wanted to go?”

And Sapnap laughed, so Tommy relaxed. The situation had been diffused then.

“Shut up, Dream, I chose to go there. It was a special moment.”

“Sure, okay.” Dream chuckled. “You’re such a dork. I guess he’ll see the rest of them eventually, if he’s good.”

Tommy’s tail was set in motion by that comment, betraying his excitement. Dream turned to him.

“Why not start now, Tommy?” He asked, hands moving to shove into his pockets. “Go on down to your dome. Let’s see if you remember the way. The door automatically unlocks from the outside, you’re free to go in.”

Tommy nodded, turning to leave. Just as he did, he heard a sound from Dream. A bark, guttural and not meaning any actual word, but Tommy knew the command for what it was and stopped.

“Tommy?” Dream asked, and Tommy nodded without turning around.

“Go _straight_ back.”

(Tommy did. Dream lingered just a few steps behind him to make sure, and when the door to the habitat shut, he made a contented sound at the obedience.)


	4. Outside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a short chapter because there will be a quick update and the next chapter is a fun one

Dream came to get Tommy as soon as the lights beamed on for the day. Tommy was eager, albeit tired, as he got his first real tour of the bunker despite having lived here for six blanket-passings.

Sapnap was waiting outside of the medbay, one of the closest rooms to Tommy's living area. After the tour, Dream and Sapnap had swapped roles so that Sapnap was now the one in charge of Tommy and Dream was free to go back to managing life in the bunker.

There were a lot of people living here, Tommy realized. One of those people were curiously watching Tommy and Sapnap while fixing the beds and adjusting the healing potions lined along the wall. He knew that they were called Bad from the conversation they had with Dream that Tommy had pointedly tried to look like he wasn't eavesdropping in on.

Sapnap folded his arms over his chest and looked at Tommy while Bad bustled around in the background, arms always laden with bottles that clanked together in a truly distracting manner. "Do you think you'll be ready to come above ground tomorrow?"

Tommy's heart fell to his feet. The aboveground was scary. There were humans- not like Sapnap, who _looked_ fully human and yet wasn’t- but _real_ full-blooded humans who hunted hybrids like him and would love nothing more than to let Tommy’s blood stain the stones red. He would know, he'd experienced it.

"Yes." He squeaked out anyway. Dream and Sapnap needed his help for the- for the whatever-it-is that they were doing. "Can you fill me in on exactly why we're doing this?"

Sapnap took a potion from the demon listening in on the conversation. "’Why’? We're at war with an empire. We need land that they're not willing to relinquish and they've been trying for _years_ now to blow up our operations. It's why we stay underground. They don't know we're here- which reminds me: whatever you do, _don't_ lead them back."

"Of course." Tommy mumbled. Bad appeared behind him and the hybrid jumped.

"Here," Bad said anyway, offering him a glass bottle. It glowed pale and blue and its container seemed more... fragile than the ones that Sapnap had been given.

"What's this?" He inquired, lifting the bottle and giving it an experimental swirl to watch the liquid bubble and form a tiny tornado within the glass.

"Splash potion of swiftness." Sapnap explained for the demon. He had moved to take a bag from off the foot of one of the beds and was carefully selecting potions to lay in the bottom of it while Tommy watched. "I'm gonna cause a distraction so that you can go run a message to one of our guard outposts."

Oh. So Tommy _wasn't_ expected to raze armies to the ground, like he'd done back in 2b2t. That was fine. Good, even. "Alright, Sapnap."

"I'll get you a map later that you can look over tonight so that you know where you're going. Should be relatively easy-going, I'm excited."

If Sapnap was excited, Tommy was excited. His eyes brightened and his tail tip swiped over the ground in small arcs that sounded inaudible over Sapnap’s half-stifled snicker. 

* * *

He toiled over that map for the majority of the night, committed it to memory so that he could let the sparks escape his fingertips and ignite the parchment before going to bed. It shriveled to ash in his grasp.

Tommy woke up that morning and waited. Of course he ended up waiting a long while- he ate when his food arrived, and then he waited some more, and nobody came as morning passed so he busied himself with digging. His nails were still cropped uncomfortably close to the beds, making his tunneling less efficient than it could be, but oh well. He wasn’t at risk of bleeding and that was a win in his eyes.

Digging was nice. The soft soil easily came free beneath his claws and with expert motions he scraped, scraped, scraped. Menial tasks were enjoyable. It gave him something to do with his hands and appeased the burning itch of instinct that swelled just beneath the thunder in his bones.

He had the beginnings of another burrow when the heavy metal scrape of the door swinging open sounded. Immediately he jumped up, did his best to brush off the dirt on his hands and in his hair, and bounded through the undergrowth to the entrance.

Sapnap was there, body angled backwards in radiant pleasure as he waited for Tommy.

He had that canvas bag from earlier slung over his shoulder, filled to the brim with potions wrapped in brown paper so that the glass wouldn’t clink together. As Tommy reached him, he passed the younger that pale blue potion from the night before and a second that he had never seen before.

When Tommy gave him a curious look after taking the potions in his hands, Sapnap motioned for him to follow out of the habitat and explained as they went. “Potion of strength. Only take it if something goes wrong and you have to fight.”

Tommy nodded, padding after Sapnap with an excitable spring in his step. “Alright, Sapnap.”

“And you know what happens if you try to run?”

“Of course.”

“If you get it done, I’m sure you’ll get rewarded. And then maybe we can go up more, you and I.”

Tommy was a little conflicted about that. Being out of the bunker was terrifying, considering the possibility of being taken back to another place like the one he’d grown up in. On the other paw, it was something _new,_ and anything that was new enraptured Tommy endlessly. Plus- it surely couldn’t be that bad if Sapnap or Dream were there.

“Okay.” Tommy let out an obedient little chirp as they wove their way through the winding bunker halls. It was a little emptier than usual, any of the handful of usual people that might be caught wandering the halls tucked away in their respective jobs. It was a busy evening for everyone involved in Dream’s society.

The rest of the walk towards the entrance area was quiet. This was the one part of the bunker that Tommy hadn’t seen even once excluding his first time down all those years ago.

There were those metal doors (always huge and heavy metal doors, Dream liked to keep what was in as _in_ and what was out as _out_ ) leading to a sort of welcome center, if one could call it that. Sapnap unlocked the doors and opened one, leading Tommy past the waiting guards and past the desk and up the grated metal stairs.

Past one more set of guards and then there they were at the final set of doors that separated the outside from everything Tommy had known in the last six years. Sapnap pressed his hand against a metal plate on the door, scanning and unlocking it, and then the doors slid open with a distant humming of redstone.

The first thing on Tommy’s mind when the fading sunshine ( _real sunshine, not the imitation kind)_ brushed his skin was a little unconventional.

_Oh my god, there’s so many smells._


	5. Technoblade’s Interlude

Technoblade had never been more thankful to wake up in the middle of the night.

There was something wrong, a sour smell encroaching into his room from the crack in his window. It was almost like the vodka that Wilbur sometimes brought home, only the alcoholic twang was somehow more prominent. _Way_ more prominent, like what Techno imagined wood grain alcohol to smell like. Not something truly intended to be consumed.

He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rose. Making his way to the window, he jammed it open the rest of the way and leaned out. He raised his snout to the air and drew in a deep breath. 

His head came back reeling. No, something was definitely wrong.

Quickly and quietly, he grabbed his chestplate off of its mount by the door and buckled it on over his rumpled sleep shirt. He shoved his helmet over his ears, grabbed his sword from the scabbard leaned against the armor stand, and crept out of the room.

The house was quiet. Wilbur was either out or asleep, Phil in his room down the hall asleep as well. Techno was unsure if he should wake them- they’d been up late for the past week drawing plans, trying to chase down and catch Dream before he could reach the trading posts he was aligned with, and Wilbur and Phil definitely needed the sleep. Whatever, Techno could handle it. And if he couldn’t, he could just shout and they’d be up in a heartbeat.

The smell couldn’t be something that bad. It was far off and distant, with Techno only able to catch hints of it due to the heightened senses of a hybrid and his cracked window. Maybe something weird had just gone and died off in the potato fields by their house. Techno knew well the smell of narcotic decay and this wasn’t quite it, but it was always possible that it had been some hybridized animal whose abilities altered the course of nature. The world they lived in was an odd one, certainly.

Techno stepped out onto the porch, the floorboards creaking and groaning under his weight. He cringed at the sound and nudged the door shut behind him.

Now that he was outside, he could definitely tell that the smell was coming from out in the fields. There was something confusing about it, though- there was no scent trail, which ruled out the possibility of something having bled all over his potatoes and then died. No, the sting in the air was more ambient.

Techno made his way down the steps and into the snow, quiet so as to not attract the attention of any mobs. Whatever it was making Techno feel wrong was definitely coming from out in the crop field. 

It was a short walk to the farm, and the overpowering nature of the _thing_ hanging in the air only got worse as he approached. The potency of it was beginning to make his head pound.

Finally he reached the fence and leaned down to examine the potatoes. The leaves stretched up into the air, glistening in the moonlight.

Well, that was odd. Techno squinted to analyze them closer and realized that the fronds were oddly soaked despite the lack of any rain.

Had someone tried to poison their crops? They weren’t very good at it, if so- the Antarctic Empire would be able to smell the peculiarity from a mile away. Techno extended a hand to the nearest leaf. His fingers came back slick and oily with clear liquid.

He raised his hand to the moonlight, the liquid glinting opalescent over his fingers in the silver glow of the stars. Techno dared a whiff and flinched away with a disgruntled rumble. No, this was definitely what was making that smell. 

He looked up, wiping the liquid off on the fabric of his pants. Now that he knew what to search for, the whole farm seemed drenched in the stuff. Unfortunate. That was a lot of ruined potatoes.

Now he needed to find who dared ruin his crops. He stalked forward on silent hooves, shoulders drawn up and sword raised.

A raven’s cry sounded out and Techno’s head jerked to the side just in time to watch the bird take to the sky. Deciding that something must have startled it, the hybrid glided forward to investigate. 

Techno reached the spot, a stretch of dirt between crop rows. He held his breath for a moment, strained his ears to listen, and was able to make out the faint rustle of something pushing leaves aside.

Techno’s sword slashed the base of the potato leaves. The stalks collapsed, and a startled figure leapt backwards.

Techno snarled. _Blood for the blood god._

Before he could take the blade to this stranger’s throat, something was getting shoved into him- a huge, heavy glass jug. It cracked against the netherite of his chestplate and dripped the foul-smelling liquid down onto his boots.

The stranger’s eyes gleamed and flashed. Before Techno could blink, flames were getting blasted at him from the palms of the stranger’s hands.

The liquid erupted in a volatile shower of red and yellow embers, and Techno yelled as his fur singed against the flames. He managed to pat himself out before too much damage was dealt, but now he had another problem.

The liquid had been an igniter, every single one of the plants doused in it to make them go up in flames despite the well-watered and healthy green sprigs of their leaves. The stray sparks had lit them and the whole farm was catching. It was dangerously fast, greater and greater stretches of flames growing with every breath Techno took.

 _Sapnap._ Techno knew immediately who had done this, even as the figure rounded and took off into the flames before the hybrid could get his thoughts organized. Sapnap had burned their crops, was already gone by the time Techno could react, and the only option was to escape the field before it was too late.

Flames roared around him, burning and climbing higher into the sky as Techno dove back towards the path he’d cut through the crops. Somewhere off in the distance, shouting started.

He emerged from the field disgruntled and gray with soot, halting to cough and hack into his palm. Hands found his shoulders and he almost swung a punch before realizing it was Phil.

“Sapnap,” Techno wheezed, gripping at a confused Phil’s shirt. “It was Sapnap. He burned our food supply, he’s still here, I saw him.”

Phil nodded, wings flaring behind him before a mighty beat sent the older man into the air. Techno gripped his sword tighter as Phil circled the field to try and find the motherfucker who had done this.

Suddenly Phil tucked his wings close to his body and dove. A blast of fire was shot into the air with a hearty _fwoom,_ telling Techno all that he needed to know.

It was hard, getting around the burning field. Sapnap and Phil were fighting on the opposite side and he couldn’t exactly cut through with the wall of flames that was blocking his path. He was panting by the end of it, trying to catch his breath before lunging into battle to help Phil.

The blond was struggling to get a hit in. Sapnap had a mottled bruise on his jaw already, but Phil’s fingers were an ugly red and peeling where they’d presumably made contact with a body defensively heated up way past the temperature that was normal for a human being. Any time Phil got close enough to make a swipe, a wall of fire would be drawn in between the two sparring and Phil would have to fall back or get burned.

Techno’s sword dove forward, stabbing the air where Sapnap had been moments before as the latter howled in laughter and danced away. Phil and Techno advanced to flank him.

Sapnap’s hands opened and flames appeared in front of either palm, yellow glowing spears flashing with danger. Suddenly Sapnap was armed with dual-wield javelins of fire.

Close combat with a pyromancer was a dangerous game, but Techno and Phil were not armed with bows or anything similar. They had no options.

“Where’s your little third party?” Sapnap cried, hooting and hollering with insufferable rings of laughter as he slashed and dodged. Techno swiped for him and Sapnap sent a blast of embers towards him that only just missed his face.

“Wilbur?” Phil gasped, faltering back as Techno covered for him and deflected a ball of fire. “Wilbur!”

Sapnap’s laughter was making Techno’s blood boil. _This was a game to him._ Sapnap had sentenced clutches of their men to hunger and he was laughing about it.

Driven by his fury, he smacked one of Sapnap’s fireballs back in a fashion similar to the way one would fight a ghast. Sapnap drew a wall of fire that the charge smashed and dissolved against, and then lifted a foot and kicked the air.

That movement made the wall spring toward Techno, and suddenly he lost all the ground that he’d made advancing as he had to scramble backwards. The flames, with nothing to feed on and blazing in the cool night air, dissolved into nothing before they could reach him.

Phil had left to go seek out his absent son, leaving Techno to busy Sapnap so that the avian wouldn’t get stopped. It was getting harder and harder to keep fighting when he couldn’t even get close enough to strike.

Techno didn’t stop a job until it was finished, though, so he kept dodging the walls of fire and blasting what he could back towards Sapnap. He had a home and a family to defend.

_How had Sapnap even gotten close enough to do this?_

‘Invisibility, probably,’ his mind answered. That made sense. It would allow Sapnap to escape notice of the guard, but no potion could last long enough to hide him while he doused the whole farm in some kind of very flammable liquid.

The voices had been quiet while Techno was still waking up, but now they screamed for blood. If they got what they demanded, Sapnap would have been long since gutted and stuffed to be used as a scarecrow. 

Sapnap was a formidable fighter though, holding his own as Techno’s fighting motions became more autonomous. They kept at it for ages, until finally- _finally-_ Phil burst back into the fight.

Sapnap was caught off-guard and bowled over. It was a short-lived victory as Phil had to kick him into the ground and spring away as he was burned.

'Dadza!' The voices in his head chorused excitedly as Phil screamed out in pain. 

(The air smelled of ash and scorched flesh, almost strong enough to override the chemical smell. Almost.)

Phil dropped down to the side and gasped at Techno as the pig hybrid distracted Sapnap with another attack. "He's okay, Wilbur's okay, he saw someone and went to check it out, he's coming back and he'll be here soon-"

As was promised, Techno made out the ringing of footsteps over the roar of battle. He chanced a glance over his shoulder and sure as day Wilbur was there doubled over and wheezing. 

Wilbur looked peculiar. His hair was standing up on end, seemingly defying gravity. The sleeves of his shirt were charred black at the end, similarly to the burn holes in Techno's own top.

"What happened?!" He roared, pulling back long enough for Sapnap to escape. The pyromancer's feet kicked at the ground, kicking up dirt and grit and ash, before he shot off over the crest of the hill and out of immediate view.

"There's someone else here!" Wilbur gasped, having to shout to get his voice heard over the cracking of flames. "Go after Sapnap, I think they're together!"

Techno didn't have to be told twice. He dove to pursue the enemy- who had disappeared towards the forest so that Phil couldn't pursue him by flight- with a blood curdling roar.

Sapnap was faster than the three of them, slipping and weaving between the trees with odd confidence despite the darkness of an Overworld night. Still, the Antarctic Empire kept after him. 

Sapnap erupted from the tree line with howls of adrenaline-crazed laughter. Precious seconds later, the trio followed.

"There!" Wilbur cried. Techno halted, squinting against the darkness to try and see what his brother was gesturing wildly towards.

It took a few long moments for his eyes to adjust enough to see. But there- next to Sapnap stood a second figure. Lean and tall, dubious hybrid traits like soft rounded ears and a tail standing out against the faint backlight of the moon, was a stranger.

Sharp white teeth glinted in the light as the stranger grinned, and then a splash potion of swiftness was slammed down at their feet.

"No!" Phil shouted, wings flaring to propel him forward as he dove to try and catch Sapnap. It was no use. 

The strangers took off once more at speeds that Techno, Wilbur, and Phil couldn't ever hope to catch. Resigned, they watched as the pair shot off towards the horizon.

"Look," Wilbur whispered, and Techno did.

There. Techno could hardly make it out with the distance, but it was unmistakable.

Sparks of blue were being kicked up beneath the feet of the stranger as they sprinted at a speed that even Sapnap- who had been faster than all three of them _without_ the potion of swiftness- seemed to be struggling to keep up with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh lawd they schmoovin
> 
> sapnap: i am so responsible.  
> tommy: you just burned the antarctic empire’s potato field to the ground  
> sapnap: yes and i take full responsibility for it


	6. The Dark Has Been Your Home

Tommy had never felt so _alive._

The lightning in his veins matched the thunder in his heart as he _ran_ like he’d never been able to before. His laughter, manic and almost unhinged in nature, was carried away by the wind. He kicked up sparks beneath his feet with the sheer speed at which he was going, unable to keep the bolts contained when he himself was so free.

He had ran the message to where Sapnap had indicated and back in record time, back in time to swoop in and rescue the other from the heat of their three opponents. Then they were off again. 

(Something faint needled in the back of his mind, an insistent pestering that a normal person would not enjoy a simple message run so much. The second thought following this involved his muddied bloodline, some ancestor back in the mess of his pedigree who was born to run and explained Tommy’s nature, and that image was consequently stifled with a violent force.)

They ran until their laughter faded to panting gasps and Tommy stopped because Sapnap asked for a break. That was never something that happened to him, and the wheezed ‘can we please stop’ in favor of a demand to do so meant the world to Tommy.

When Tommy dug his heels into the ground, Sapnap collapsed on his back in the grass and Tommy followed shortly after.

“Woah,” Sapnap panted after a few beats of silence had lapsed on between them. “That was the most fun I’ve had in a _long_ time.”

“Yeah.” Tommy gasped out, and a giggle ripped its way from his throat. “That was _fun._ I don’t get to run like that at home.”

“You don’t?”

“Nah, it’s too densely planted. Not that I’d rather it be open, I like the plants, I promise that I appreciate them- but I can’t just sprint straight like that.”

“Huh.” Sapnap frowned, thinking. “I’m sure I can do something to help. More agility exercises when we train, more of these running missions.”

Tommy nodded, eyes lighting up, before he remembered that this was _Sapnap_ and Sapnap treated him like a friend not a pet, which meant that Tommy could continue the conversation instead of letting himself lapse into silence. “Thank you, that sounds fuckin’ awesome. I liked it.”

Sapnap grinned, stretched out and folded his arms behind his head. “When we get to spend more time above ground, I’ve got so much to show you. The bunker is fine and all but nothing beats this.”

Tommy’s heart swelled at that, a warmth fizzing up his throat and bringing vibrations from deep in his chest.

(There was a lurking heaviness as well, an accusatory voice screaming of the _wrongness_ of replacing Dream with Sapnap. Tommy pushed it down.)

“Yeah.” Tommy murmured, and turned his eyes to the stars. He’d forgotten how gorgeous they were. Even though the underground observatory was still his favorite room and would likely remain as such, the allure of the real sky was not something that could escape him. “When are we goin’ back to Dream?”

“You don’t wanna stay up here a little longer?”

“I do, I do. But Dream wouldn’t like it.”

“You don’t have to live by Dream’s judgement, Tommy.”

Tommy frowned. That was a foreign concept to him. Dream fed him, gave him a nice home and trained him and kept him safe, only asking for some work in return. And it even took six blankets before he asked that of the hybrid.

But… Sapnap was safe. Sapnap was like an older brother, setting his hands on Tommy’s shoulders and guiding him when their guardian wouldn’t. He could ask Sapnap things that he couldn’t ask Dream. So he did.

“Why not?”

Sapnap sighed, turned to look at Tommy and analyzed him for a few long seconds. Then he spoke.

“Dream is… well, I’d follow him to the ends of the earth, and I know that you would too, but a lot of the time he forgets that we’re human.”

Sapnap was sowing seeds of doubt that sparked the old rebellion in Tommy, had been doing so since they started training together. It brought about spells of internal conflict and thinking for himself was hard- so Tommy answered with the one thing he knew to be truth.

“I’m not human.”

Sapnap sighed again, but the corners of his mouth were pulling up in exasperated amusement that told Tommy it was okay. “Well you’re- maybe not in the traditional sense, but you have feelings and thoughts like the rest of us so that doesn’t much matter. You’re _smart_ and Dream’s not for making you think otherwise.”

Tommy turned back to the stars. The stars didn’t try to unteach Tommy years of his life with gentle persuasion that made saying ‘no’ harder than it should have been.

“You wanna know something, Tommy?”

“Mm?”

“I’m not any better.” Sapnap laughed, a sound that made Tommy flinch with the pure bitterness of it. “I used to- I used to think like he did. You taught me better. You’re not lesser than me and you’re not lesser than him just because you’re a bit of a mutt.”

Tommy’s blue gaze remained trained on the sky, nose wrinkled as the gears turned. That had come relatively unprompted, leaving the nasty little part of Tommy’s mind to hiss that Sapnap had said it to make himself feel better- a little kiss of brownie points. But Sapnap was _Sapnap,_ the dutifully loyal friend of Dream, and it was hard to take what he said as anything less than honest.

Finally Tommy nodded.

“You’re a right’un, Sapnap.” He said, and he meant it. Sapnap smiled.

“C’mon,” Came the grunt as Sapnap rolled over, pushing himself to his feet and extending a hand to Tommy. “Let’s get back then.”

Tommy took it, curled his fingers around Sapnap’s extended palm and used it to pull himself up. The brief touch sent fissures of satisfaction throughout him, starved as he was for those small gestures of kindness, and Sapnap’s hold felt unnaturally warm in the best way.

The journey back was taken at a brisk walk instead of a sprint. Occasionally Tommy would bound ahead like an overexcited dog, only to turn around and run back when he felt that Sapnap was too slow to catch up, but they joked and laughed like kin and it was enjoyable. 

It was nearing morning by the time that they were finally back underground. Tommy had been given Sapnap’s potion bag to return the empty bottles and what had gone unused to Bad.

Though he was tired, Tommy was excited for the job. It was a little symbol of trust, giving him potions, and Tommy liked being given tasks to do anyway.

The medbay was a pleasant place- if one ignored the chemical smell- with its soft lighting and warm atmosphere. The beds were decorated with quilts at each foot instead of plain white sheets, the walls hung with cards and photos and decorative braids of twine where there was space to do so. Tommy skipped in and was greeted by their resident doctor.

“H-ello!” Bad cried, drawing out the words as his face appeared smiling from behind a shelf. “What’re you doing alone over here?”

“Sapnap sent me to give you these.” Tommy explained, lifting the bag that had once been filled with glistening potions. Paper and glass clinked together from within. “We got our message across.”

“Oh, good. Lotsa things I need restocked around here.” Bad hummed. His hands came up to stick a curved needle between his teeth as he went back to sorting through that shelf. “Do me a favor and put what’s left back in the cabinets, like colors together with like. I’m a little busy.”

Tommy nodded and hummed to signify he’d heard since Bad was no longer looking at him. It took him a few tries to find the right cabinet, but when he did he began sorting the potions away. 

“Did the message run go well?” Bad hummed, his words muffled from behind a layer of wood. There was a thump and then a half-stifled yelp as something was hit.

Tommy tried not to look. Damn his curiosity. “Oh, yes. I got the message delivered and Sapnap burned the big field nearest their cabin.”

“He managed to get that close?” Tommy heard a rustling of fabric, presumably Bad sitting up because when he spoke next his words were much clearer. “Good on you two, you make a great team!”

Tommy failed to hide a smile as he sorted away the last full potion bottle and set to setting aside the empty ones to be cleaned. “Thank you. Sapnap’s fun to work with, I like him. He says I’m gonna get to go above ground more.”

Bad laughed.

Tommy’s expression was instantly wiped clear as Bad’s giggles rang out through the medical room. His nose scrunched up in confusion. “What? What’s funny?”

Tommy looked up as Bad turned to face him, sharp teeth bared in a grin. The glowing whites of his eyes bathed the room in a more empty light and his arms spread in an explanatory gesture.

“You foolish boy,” Bad grinned, voice dripping with amusement that made Tommy shrink down. Like a cat toying with a mouse. “You’ll never get out of here, not really.”

“I don’t want to _leave_ ,” Tommy rushed to explain, skittering backwards on all fours. His claws clacked against the tile of the ground. “Just- it’s beautiful up there, I like the glimpses of it that I get when I’m on a mission.”

“They’ll always be that, just glimpses!” Bad cheered, clapping his hands together. Tommy was confused. “You’ll be chained here all your life, Tommy, the sky wasn’t meant to be yours. You’re very romantic, do you know that? You’re here to help us expand our territory, not live your own life.”

“Well, yes, but-“

“No ‘but’s!” Bad chirped one final time, still sounding all too cheery for someone who had crushed all of Tommy’s hopes and aspirations between his boots and the curb. “Thank you for your help, but you can go back now, I’ve got it from here!”

Tommy swallowed thickly and nodded his agreement, pushing himself to his feet before turning and taking off down the empty halls and back to his living space. He didn’t even care that he slammed the door hard enough for it to send vibrations throughout the floor, tingling unpleasantly up his feet and along his limbs.

Gods, he was so _stupid._ Sapnap wasn’t his brother, the world wasn’t theirs. He was Sapnap’s apprentice being trained like a dog to attack and maim the opposition.

Tommy swallowed, his eyes leaking blue as he trudged through the underbrush and to the rope ladder that led to his bed. He _hated_ the fighting, hated it.

Not for the first time, he dreamt of warfare and vengeful thunder and all the rage of Zeus contained in the body of a small child who was just fighting to survive.


	7. Paying a Friendly Visit

Tommy was _furious._

He went to bed angry and woke up angry. When the door opened with that metallic whir and Sapnap’s face appeared in the doorframe, Tommy prowled over with a scowl darkening his expression.

His head was down; he didn’t say anything to Sapnap, instead keeping his jaw clenched and hands curled into tight fists. Tommy just stalked on past the older man, refusing to turn and look even as he felt a curious set of eyes on him.

The walk to the arena was mute, the only sounds being the pair’s echoing footsteps bouncing along the empty corridors. Tommy couldn’t avoid Sapnap’s confrontation forever, though, and soon they were facing off in the vast blankness of the bunker’s training dome.

“You’re angry.” Sapnap commented as he hoisted two swords off the weapon rack. He tossed Tommy the blade intended for him and no training gear. “Don’t let it make you reckless or you’ll get hurt.”

Tommy caught the sword as it was tossed over to him and stepped backwards. His ears pinned back against his head, eyes narrowing. He was born in bloodshed, he didn’t need Sapnap telling him to be careful. It was only a training match anyways.

Tommy was growing to like swordsmanship now that he was being taught proper technique. Someone’s weapon is an extension of themselves, Dream had said once, and Tommy found that to ring especially true now. The sword was a continuation of his arm, an extra length of track for the electricity to bolt along.

(It also provided him a place to let the energy build up without hurting himself. Tommy was practicing the act of ‘charging up’ on his own time, and it was gradually getting less painful as he learned how to do it, but the sword eliminated any hurt entirely. It was good.)

Tommy swung his arm outwards, the sword slicing through the air. He poised the blade out and slightly down, the bright bolts of electricity skittering along the blue diamond.

Sapnap raised his own blade, sparks dancing around his fingertips and illuminating the sword in a heated glow. The two sized each other up for long moments before Sapnap finally made a move.

It was a simple slash. He was impossibly quick, practiced over years of warfare, but Tommy still managed to pull his sword up in a block before he was cut clean in half. He let go of his hold on the electricity, clicks and pops sounding as a few of the bolts shot from one blade to the other. Sapnap jolted back and yelped as he was shocked.

Tommy took the opening and lunged, drawing a wide arc with his weapon in an attempt to come around and slash Sapnap in the side. The other was prepared for the attack, though, dancing away at the last second with flames licking the air where he had been. The heat was uncomfortably warm, burning the prickling tufts of fur darkening Tommy’s hands, but it wasn’t near enough to make him stop fighting yet. Not when he so badly wanted to draw blood.

That was the funny thing. Most days Tommy hated the idea of fighting, craved an escape from it. However there were moments like these that sent him spiraling in a rabid flurry of gnashing teeth and flashing claws that only blood could sate.

Of course, he didn’t want to hurt Sapnap- even in the heat of the moment. However Tommy had convinced himself that Sapnap didn’t feel the same, and the blond was trying desperately to forget the connection that had been forged. To put his walls back up, his instinct demanded it.

The momentum of Tommy’s swing meant that balance was something not easily regained. Instead of throwing himself back upright and hoping for the best, though, he pulled his sword closer to his chest and dove forward in a scurrying attempt to get out of range. He felt a few of the hairs on his tail get shaved off as Sapnap just barely missed a swing.

Unwilling to let his tail almost get docked again, Tommy used his continuing movement in a rising twist so that he was facing back towards Sapnap. Not once did his feet stop moving, not until his sword plunged into the space that his opponent had just been in a barely missed jab.

They might be in a stalemate in terms of strength, but Tommy was faster. Sapnap made up for it with defensive skills that matched Tommy’s agility; so the pair continued endlessly slashing and swinging, blocking and dodging. 

No blood had been drawn when the match was called. 

_(Good thing too, because Tommy didn’t want to deal with an open wound. He had a… special array of issues that came with gaping cuts.)_

The massive fan that was inlaid into the roof kicked on, loudly humming and sending a current of air which cut through the stuffy heat that had fizzled off of Sapnap. A shiver rippled along Tommy’s spine as the faux-wind tugged at his features and the fabric of his clothes.

“Good match,” Sapnap praised when he finally got enough breath back in his lungs to speak. A warm hand settled on Tommy’s shoulder, making the latter involuntarily stiffen.

The praise always made Tommy grow warm in a dangerous way. Used to, he loved it- the affection, someone being _proud_ of him. Now he was just trying to violently stifle that fuzz before it cracked through his meticulously rebuilt barriers.

Tommy carefully removed himself from Sapnap’s hold and turned away to avoid having to look at the reaction. Sapnap could be too much like a kicked puppy sometimes, and-

“Oh, come on, Tommy.” Sapnap pouted, appearing over Tommy’s shoulder. The boy clenched his jaw. “Are you angry at me?”

 _Yes._ Tommy couldn’t _say_ that though, because he had no reason to be upset and Dream wouldn’t like him being anything less than grateful. He just swallowed thickly and didn’t respond.

Sapnap carefully stepped around to stand in front of Tommy, who lowered the sword and allowed him to place a hand on either shoulder. 

Tommy could feel his resolve rapidly cracking at the genuine, concerned look on his mentor’s face and he cast his gaze down to the ground to avoid looking. 

Sapnap waited, and when it became apparent that Tommy wouldn’t answer, he tried again. His tone was stupidly gentle and Tommy wished that he’d just be mean.

“What’s the matter?”

Tommy’s ears flattened against his head, his free hand curling and uncurling around empty air. When he finally spoke, his voice broke pitifully.

“It’s- it’s nothing, jus’ Bad bein’ mean.”

“What’d he say?”

“He said I’d always be chained down here an’ you guys are just usin’ me.”

Tommy didn’t know why he was being honest, or even why he was saying anything at all. It’d be perfectly easy to clam up and lie. A familial touch found his face, though, taking his chin and gently pulling his gaze up to look.

“You’re- you’re a person, Tommy, and I care about you. I joke with you, I laugh with you, and even though you were brought here to help us expand, that doesn’t mean our friendship is fake. You understand?”

Tommy’s ears had pressed flat against his head, pinned back in fearful anticipation. When Sapnap finished talking, though, Tommy just blinked.

After some hesitation, he threw himself into Sapnap’s chest and grabbed fistfuls of the older male’s shirt in his hands.

Sapnap’s arms instinctively came around Tommy, pulling him into a hug, but it took a few seconds before he processed the situation and could bark out an almost disbelieving laugh. Tommy just weaseled closer against his side, his trembling easily able to be felt.

“He really got to you, huh?” Sapnap teased in a grasping attempt to lighten the mood. “Don’t mind Bad, he’s very… distantly chaotic. ‘The ends justify the means’, he doesn’t much care about any of us.”

Tommy sniffed and nodded silently. Gods, this was stupid, he was _not_ crying about a peer repeating something that he’d technically already known.

“How you feelin’?”

“Better, I think. Still angry.”

“Whaddya say we get ready to ruin someone’s day?”

That was a proposition that immediately got Tommy’s attention. He pushed himself up more to look at Sapnap, expression narrowing in contemplation. Despite his earlier moments, a smile was crawling onto his face. “How so?”

“Well, the Arctic Empire’s got people running in supplies pretty constantly. Bet we could stake out one of their trails and steal, what do you think?”

Tommy fully pulled away now, rubbing at his eyes with the back of a furred hand. “I’d like that.”

If Bad said that he’d never truly be his own person, then fine. He’d learn to get over his qualms about bloodshed and raze their enemies to the fucking _ground._ One supply wagon at a time.

That was how he ended up on his stomach behind a bush on the edge of a small incline, overlooking a dirt trodden trail.

“We’ll hear ‘em coming,” Sapnap whispered, hidden further back in the shadow. He was covering Tommy’s back, just in case. “Horses aren’t exactly quiet and they’re hauling supply wagons.”

“Gotchya,” He whispered in return, turning back to the dirt trail and waiting. The stars were out and there was still a biting chill that came with it being an early spring night, but that was alright because he felt happy being above ground and protected by Sapnap’s presence.

He was pretty used to doing nothing and so was content to lie in wait for however long it took for the rumble of wooden wheels over rock and earth to sound. The hybrid motioned Sapnap over, sharpened senses scanning the darkness for whoever was approaching.

Like clockwork, a wagon ambled down the dirt path. It seemed innocent enough, one tired driver occasionally switching the reins of the draft horse that was hauling the road. If it wasn’t for the peeling powder blue paint on the oak boards of the wagon, it could have gone unnoticed as an Arctic Empire asset.

“Shabby.” Tommy complained, voice a dull whisper. Sapnap shushed him.

They let the wagon meander on past before making any sort of move. Jumping would startle the animal and send it running, and no matter how fast Tommy was, he still was incapable of outrunning an entire horse.

Tommy slid down the cliff, Sapnap clambering down after him. Thankfully the horse was making the journey at a walk so Sapnap could slink ahead through the shadows to cut them off.

He followed the wagon for a short distance, approaching from behind until he was near enough to grab the handle at the back and hop onto the step meant for people unloading the cart. Now he just had to hold on, clinging to the wood until Sapnap made his move.

“Halt.”

The voice came from ahead as Sapnap stepped out onto the road, raising his weapon and cutting off the path. Tommy craned his neck to listen.

The wagon did indeed stop, jolting with the abrupt end and nearly making Tommy fall. He held on though as Sapnap continued talking.

“This is a robbery. Whatchyu got?”

“Just a supply load of food.” The driver said, sounding tired and relatively unimpressed by one man with a sword. Maybe he’d been robbed before. Probably so, if knowledge of the Arctic Empire’s supply run trails were as common as Tommy was being led to believe. “It ain’t worth much, just let me pass and we’ll have no problems.”

Tommy shuffled sideways until he reached the edge of the wagon. Carefully he extended his leg until his foot found the wheel, and after grabbing the top of the cart, he climbed up and around the edge to the other side. He continued inching closer to the driver as Sapnap spoke.

“I don’t care about the money.”

“Then you’re one shit thief.”

Tommy reached the end of the second wall. The other face of the cart was where the seats laid. He crouched down and waited.

“Not here for money, pal. Here to relieve your troops of their food supply. Why don’t you just hand it over and we’ll part none the bloodier?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Tommy flung himself into the driver’s seat of the wagon alongside the stranger- who barely got out a startled yelp before Tommy was flinging him to the ground.

“Buh-bye!” Tommy barked, hooting in laughter as Sapnap leapt up alongside him and grabbed the reigns. A flick and a loud “h’yah!” sent the horse at a gallop off down the path and left the stranger in the dust.

Tommy gripped the seat as the wagon rattled over the dirt path, Sapnap still howling joyously next to him. His face was split in a grin.

“Did you see his stupid face?” Tommy yelped, whipping to face Sapnap with bright eyes. He had to yell to get his voice heard. “He was all like- ah! Bitch!”

“Nimrod should’a just given us the wagon!” Sapnap laughed, flicking the reins again as he pulled the horse to one side down a path leading out of Arctic territory. “Bet he feels dumb now!”

“Ye’h!” Tommy snickered. “And- and hurtin’! Pushed him hard, I did!”

“Hell yeah you did, little buddy. Real sneaky-like.”

Tommy grinned, the cold wind whipping his face and stinging his cheeks as he took in the outside world.

This was getting _fun._


	8. You Would Beg Me To Survive (without blame)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he gave me fear, and he said: ‘my dear,  
> god will never miss thee’
> 
> chapter title from tastes like sympathy by birdeatsbaby
> 
> tw for gore, death, violence, electrocution

Something drastic had shifted within Tommy. The chaos drummed adrenaline through his veins in an agent of reckless pleasure. Fighting for a purpose other than survival made drawing blood feel less _dirty_.

He enjoyed training with Sapnap. Learning proper form and getting real practice in meant he was even better than he had been, and Tommy couldn’t deny enjoying things that he was good at. Sapnap patted his back and smiled at him when he did something right- which Dream did too, but instead of feeling like empty praise it felt _real._ Like Sapnap was actually proud of him.

So they burned and they stole and they generally existed to make life harder for the Antarctic Empire. Tommy knew that there were retaliations and yet he was up in his nest for practically all of it, something that suited him just fine. 

It was a surprisingly warm dusk- the winter finally beginning to give way to spring- when Tommy found himself out and about again. A wire coil was in his hands, hollow and lined with redstone dust. A fuse. He was in the process of stringing it to his and Sapnap’s spot in the bushes while the latter was off making sure everything was situated.

The other end of the fuse was connected to a circular stack of rocks. A well drilled into the earth- and there was only a small explosive attached, not enough to blow the whole thing to bits, but the rubble and debris falling down would be enough to taint the whole water supply. 

“I got it!” Tommy hissed, looking over his shoulder to where Sapnap had last disappeared to.

Through the bushes was a curse. Tommy scowled.

“Light it!” Sapnap’s voice barked, which made Tommy’s scowl deepen. Usually Sapnap went ahead and lit the fuses himself. Still, Tommy didn’t hesitate to do so, snapping his fingers around the end of the metal. It took a few tries before the electricity sparked enough for flames to spring to life.

Once darkness was dancing along the wire, Tommy turned and ducked through the foliage. Sapnap near about crashed into him.

Once both parties had skidded to a stop and stabilized, Sapnap’s hands found Tommy’s shoulders in a squeeze. Tommy sensed the urgency and looked up, ears back.

“Tommy,” Sapnap hissed, eyes wide and frantic. “Antarctic Empire troops are marching towards the bunker armed to the teeth. I don’t know how, but they’ve found us. Run, beat ‘em back, you’re faster than me and we gotta warn Dream-“

There was a boom as the explosives detonated. Tommy wrenched himself away, taking off as a streak of red and brown and blonde over the wildgrass.

The heels of his feet burned with barely contained electricity as he ran, diving over logs and rock before finally making it to the door hidden and disguised as stone against the cliffside. He banged the familiar pattern and reliably the metal swung open.

Dream was standing there, mask pulled sideways on his head and revealing a confused expression. “Where’s Sapnap?”

“I beat him here,” Tommy gasped, chest heaving a ragged beat. “Ran th’ whole way. They’re marching for us, had to come warn-“

“Get in.” Dream’s words were dark, pushing Tommy back inside and clicking the door shut behind him. “We’re going into lockdown.”

“How will Sapnap get back in?”

“He’s got a key, remember? Get down.”

Tommy wrung his hands together. The tips of his fangs dug into the inside of his cheek. “Don’t you want me to go back to my area?”

“Not now, you won’t be much use in there. Go find something to do, prepare yourself.”

Preparing was something that Tommy could do. He had to get someone to unlock the arena doors for him, but once they were open he dove in and scrambled straight for the weapons wall.

Above him, the lights darkened red and the intercoms kicked on. _Bunker entering lockdown. This is not a drill._

Tommy found his favorite sword and attached its scabbard to his belt, pulling on the heavy duty artillery gloves that would keep the flesh of his palms protected. The fingers had been cut off so that the leather wouldn’t scorch should lightning burst from his fingertips. What else did he need? He grabbed the handful of symmetrical throwing knives, metal clinking against metal, and began fitting them into the pockets of his clothing made for weapon stores. Oh, this was bad. Very bad.

Tommy finished that and threw himself out of the arena, slamming the door shut behind him with a bang and a click as it automatically locked. Ah. It was always good to be the one locking doors, and there was no way he was going to leave the arena open. Too many useful things to leave open for the enemy.

The path Tommy tracked back deliberately passed both the medbay and the entrance center. Tommy told himself that it was just to make sure that everything was in order- but when he got a glimpse of Sapnap safe and alive back in the bunker, his shoulders visibly leaked tension. That was one worry dealt with.

People were scattering, taking up posts in the labyrinth of corridors with weapons at the ready. Tommy joined them, finding his own little nook wedged in the shadows between wall and an engine.

It was a small corner. He could easily go unnoticed, but he crouched there with his sword raised and waited. His eyes flashed dangerously in the shadows.

Tommy didn’t know how long he waited before the fighting started. It was distant, at first, just angry shouts and metal against metal as swords clashed. A shudder rippled down Tommy’s spine.

Tommy pressed himself further back into the wall when the first wave of enemy ranks ran past him. There was maybe six of them, too many for Tommy to be able to survive taking them on, so he hid in the darkness and waited for a more reliable opportunity.

It started getting scary. The walls closed in on him, inching closer as screams started and then were cut off.

“There’s too many locked doors, our numbers are getting picked off one by one in these damn halls! Guys!”

It was an unfamiliar voice accompanied by fast-paced footsteps. Tommy honed into the sound, all his senses narrow and focused on one thing.

The heightened senses of an animal made it easy to pinpoint the location even when Tommy was hidden behind a corner. When they were near enough, Tommy leapt.

His teeth were bared in a ferocious grin as he erupted from his hiding place and slammed his sword upwards, lightning shooting along the blade. The voltage was impossibly high, built up from however long Tommy had been lying in wait, and his nose filled with the scorch of burning flesh and hair. The person jolted a few times as electricity was pumped through a body not meant to contain it.

Tommy ripped his sword back out, chest heaving and face sticky with splattered red. The person collapsed backwards lifelessly, heart stopped by the voltage.

The shouting was coming for him now. He couldn’t stick around unless he wanted to be skinned alive, skewered and mounted on a wall- Dream had told him stories, the Arctic was truly fearsome with their examples- so he did what he did best. He ran.

Tommy was but a ripple in the shadow, a small shift in the darkness as he flashed by. He kept low to the ground, weaseling along the now-familiar passageways and away from the site of the murder.

Right, right, left, straight- and Tommy was back near his home. He slowed to a silent stalk and strained his ears to listen.

“-Managed to get the door open, but it just looked like some kind of odd greenhouse.”

“Shit. I bet all the locked doors in here are just food stores. What do you say we do?”

“Gas it, maybe. Light the whole place up. That’ll take care of most of the issue.”

Tommy’s heart fell to his feet. This was bad, this was _brutal._ Even moreso than what he’d done with Sapnap.

It wasn’t _fair_. In the bunker lived healers, farmers, ordinary people helping the cause in innocent ways. Tommy peeked around the corner to size up what he was dealing with.

Two familiar figures, both hybrids. A looming, bipedal boar and a significantly shorter avian. Tommy knew that they were skilled warriors- he’d rescued Sapnap from them on his first outing- but maybe he wouldn’t have to fight them.

Tommy’s hands opened and blue light flickered before each palm. He closed his fists around the abstract and felt it materialize to something palpable.

It took a lot of effort in stoking them to formidable height. While his two opponents chittered on about terrorism and explosives, Tommy was tending to a pair of growing spears of lightning.

When he felt the power rolling off of the electricity and into his veins, he threw.

The first bolt struck the wall behind both, exploding in a starburst of cyan that shattered and rained burning sparks. Both shouted, and the bigger of the two strangers turned to stab him, but Tommy had a ranged weapon that the other lacked. He flung his second bolt straight into the other’s chest and took off running as they stiffly dropped to the ground with a dying scream.

The lightning might’ve taken out the smaller one had that been who was struck, but Tommy doubted that the boar hybrid couldn’t absorb the shock. He seemed too… bulky. But Tommy had bought himself time and that was what mattered.

The avian must have stopped to help his partner because Tommy couldn’t feel himself being pursued. That didn’t mean much, though- there was a limited amount of time before air would be replaced with smoke and Dream’s men would be suffocated.

Tommy flew down the halls. As he neared the bunker entrance, there were more and more bodies littering the floor. He tried his best not to look at those.

He skidded into the entrance room and threw himself behind Dream’s desk, where the buttons were. Each one glowed a different color, codes that the bunker residents had all learned upon entering. Tommy slammed his hand down on the yellow one.

 _Gas leak._ Maybe that wasn’t the situation exactly, but there wasn’t really a button for ‘the enemy is trying to poison our air’. It got the point across.

Now Tommy just had to escape.

An unfamiliar blue-clad figure appeared in the room with him and Tommy spun just in time to dodge an axe swinging for his face.

Tommy’s hand slammed upwards, his claws scoring gaping gashes along his attacker’s face. The person screamed and fell backwards and Tommy barely managed to seize one of their legs in his fists before they could escape. He channeled his electricity from his body into theirs- the shudder rippled upwards at first, and the stranger seized before their eyes rolled up into the back of their head and they stilled.

Shit. Tommy was losing time. He dropped the limp leg, blood still smearing his hands and shirt, and lunged for the bunker door.

It had been wrenched open by the Arctic Empire and yet had fallen and clicked shut once more with the fighting. Tommy banged, and even tried unlocking it as Sapnap had, but his handprint was not in the system and therefore failed to do anything.

A sickening nausea rose in his gut as he realized what he had to do.

Tommy backpedaled, retreating to where most of the fighting had occurred and fallen soldiers laid slumped against the wall. Tommy dug until he found one dressed in lime instead of blue.

If he could just drag them over to the door, he could lift them up enough to press their still-warm handprint to the keypad and get the door to unlock. Tommy grabbed the guard beneath their armpits and lifted. 

Maybe the person was trapped beneath the body of another, or maybe they were just too heavy for a teenager to drag by himself, but Tommy could _not_ get them to budge. He lifted and pulled and kicked and yet failed to move the body.

 _Shit._ Tommy’s mind was fogging over with animalistic instincts of survival, but if he let himself revert into a feral state there would be no escape. He needed to logic his way out of this, damnit.

Tommy’s gaze dropped to his scabbard, then flitted to the guard’s limp wrist. He swallowed.

Slowly, he drew the sword and grabbed their hand in his own. He lifted the limp arm and lined up the edge of his bloodied blade to the fleshy part of their wrist.

Tommy raised his sword and swung.

There was a nasty, _wet_ sound as muscle was sliced into, cracking against the bone yet not going through. Blood was welling out of the sliced artery and filling the air with the scent of blood.

Instead of feeling sicker, Tommy grew a sort of stony determination.

He’d drawn enough blood in his days. He was _not_ going to let himself get suffocated to death by a bunch of bloody tyrants in his own home.

A second hack and the bone cracked loudly, splintering between glistening diamond. The arm still wasn’t yet fully in two.

Tommy gripped the palm tighter in one hand, and with the other he grabbed the blood-slick forearm beneath the incision. He poised the broken limb over his knee and slammed down with all his might.

The bone cracked in two. One final swing and the muscle was entirely severed, ropey tendons giving way beneath Tommy’s sword. Tommy lifted the severed hand, clear liquid and pus draining from what had gone beyond a flesh wound.

Tommy sprinted for the door and pressed the palm against the keypad. The technology glowed green and unlocked with a gentle click.

Tommy was so grateful he could laugh. He didn’t, though, just threw the severed hand down and made a mad dash for freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don’t worry if they’re not described as familiar, they’re faceless nps made to fill out ranks
> 
> sooo how we feelin
> 
> tommy: hey sapnap want a hand [extends dismembered hand]  
> sapnap: that’s it i’m taking my chances with the antarctic empire


	9. Could Never Tell You What Happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (the day i turned seventeen)
> 
> we get a look into sapnap’s mind with this one

Tommy began doubting his actions almost immediately.

He didn’t stop running- he dove for the woods because that land was familiar and he knew where he could find water- because he already _made_ his decision. If he faltered now he would lose whatever chance at survival he had. Still, his thoughts were a terrible uproar.

_You abandoned Dream. You abandoned Sapnap._

_I didn’t abandon them, I gave them warning. That’s not abandonment._

_They rescued you and this is how you repay them._

_I told them, I did._

_You should’ve stayed to fight._

_I would’ve died._

_It would have been an honorable death, defending your people. Now you’ll just get captured and thrown into another fight ring._

_I don’t like fighting._

_You only don’t like it when it’s not for ~~Sapnap~~ _ _Dream._

“Shut up!” Tommy screeched, only to clamp a hand over his mouth when he realized his shout had been aloud. His whole body ran cold with the shock of fear.

He hadn’t realized he had stopped moving, not at first, but then some squirrel started angrily barking at him from up in the trees and suddenly he was snapped back into reality. He jabbed his middle finger up, pointed towards the trees and that stupid fucking squirrel, and then he was on the run again.

Leaf litter flew up beneath his feet as he darted beneath the looming oaks, the darkness stretching out and reaching for him. Tommy was _terrified._ There was nowhere to go from here, no bunker to return to, nobody Tommy could go find as it was too dangerous to double back and return.

If he could just survive a night or two without getting captured, he could go find Dream and Sapnap or Bad and anyone else. Tommy didn’t want to be alone. He had to be, though, either until he ran into someone or it was clear enough for him to go back. 

Tommy ran until he couldn’t anymore, until his legs shook with resisted urge to give out. He allowed himself to fall forward into the leaf litter beneath the twisted roots of a looming sycamore.

He set to scraping out earth beneath the wood, just deep enough to be serviceable as a den for the night, and folded himself into the niche. His tail curled around his slender, trembling form, eyes flitting beneath the shadows in the bushes.

When he was satisfied that he was alone, he let the sleep claim him. 

* * *

Of course he slept lightly. It was not at all a restful night- his ears remained tuned into his surroundings, in constant motion even with unconsciousness. Repeatedly, he would wake up because a stag bellowed or a bird cried.

He was roused for maybe the fifth time to something slightly different. It wasn’t an animal call, but the cracking of dried leaves under stealthy steps.

Immediately, he crept out of his hidey-hole. The moon was still high in the sky, betraying just how little sleep he’d gotten, but Tommy was wide awake anyway. He reasoned that it was just a deer passing through but that didn’t stop his heart from drumming hard in his chest.

The steps stopped just before Tommy got close enough to see and he cursed. Suddenly he was getting crashed into by a firm, hot weight.

Tommy screamed as he hit the ground, slashing wildly. There was a pained yelp. Tommy felt the buzzing begin to rise in his chest and up his throat- so he bared his teeth, which now crackled with electricity, but before he could sink his fangs into whoever had attacked him, he saw.

The blue bolts spilling out of his mouth provided a faint cerulean light, a glow just enough to illuminate the face of Sapnap hovering shocked and panting above him. The other seemed to realize just as Tommy did, and violently they scrabbled away from each other.

Tommy’s lightning immediately died, bathing them in darkness yet again, but Sapnap sparked a flame just as the shadows began to reclaim them. They stared at each other for a few long, suffocatingly silent moments.

Sapnap had a quartet of long gashes stretching up his face, beginning just above his jaw and stopping where the swell of his cheeks dipped into his eyes. The wound was fresh and bleeding, and suddenly Tommy realized that his claws felt warm and sticky. He swallowed with guilt.

Sapnap’s headband was also gone, allowing his messy hair to fall into his face and eyes. The white fabric was tied around his upper arm, just beneath his left shoulder, and Sapnap was gripping the makeshift bandage in his right fist. He looked just as terrible as Tommy felt, covered in soot and smelling of ash.

“Tommy,” Sapnap breathed out, disbelief edging his tone.

Tommy flung himself into Sapnap’s arms.

The fire disappeared into the air as Sapnap released it in favor of Tommy. The darkness was okay, though, because now Sapnap was here. Sapnap was here, Sapnap was alive, Sapnap was _safe_. They could protect each other now, just like they had on their little missions out before.

Tommy didn’t realize he was crying until he tried to speak and ended up choking on his words instead.

“You- They just- Were gonna- I thought you might’ve-“

Sapnap gently lowered them both to the ground, pulling Tommy into his lap and quietly shushing him. “Shh, it’s okay, ‘m here Toms.”

Tommy gripped Sapnap’s shirt with delirious fervor in the same way a child would clutch his older brother after a bad dream. “Promise you’re okay.”

“Promise.”

The words served to soothe Tommy; at least, as much as he could be comforted after he’d mutilated and dismembered a corpse and killed at least one man. He pressed his face into the warmth of Sapnap’s good shoulder and trembled.

They remained like that for a long time, alone in the forest save for each other’s company. Sapnap had closed his eyes at some point and only opened them when Tommy spoke.

“Where’s Dream?” The boy asked, quiet and hopeful. Sapnap’s heart grew heavy.

Sapnap had been with Dream in the bunker up until the very end, when that final alarm went off. He’d always known things that Tommy didn’t, but this was different. Worse somehow.

  
  


_“Not everyone’s out, we can’t leave yet!” Sapnap screamed, catching Dream’s sleeve as he turned to run. “There’s people still in there!”_

_Dream chuckled darkly and wrenched his arm away, rounding on Sapnap. “The only people deeper than this door are expendable. We need to leave.”_

_“No, Dream. not yet.”_

_Sapnap couldn’t see Dream’s face, but he could hear the menacing curl of his old friend’s lip in the lilt of his voice._

_“You want to go back for Tommy.” Dream stated, as easy as if it was a fact. Sapnap’s silence confirmed that it was. There was a long stretch of silence as Dream scrutinized Sapnap._

_Finally, Dream spoke._

_“You’ve gotten attached to the guard dog, Sapnap. A tool.”_

_“A-“_

_“Shut up!” Dream roared, snapping harsh enough to make even Sapnap flinch back. “If you want to be with him so bad, fine! That just means you’re expendable, too!”_

_Suddenly Sapnap was being knocked off balance as Dream slammed his gloved palms into the shorter male’s chest. Sapnap tumbled backward, falling to the ground in a heap as he was shoved._

_The door shut on him with a bang._

_“Dream!” Sapnap screeched, shooting back to his feet and throwing himself against the door. He banged and smashed his fists until the metal scraped his skin raw and Dream’s footsteps had faded completely._

_Sapnap wasn’t stupid, he knew why Dream had shut the door. It would’ve happened regardless what side of it Sapnap had been on. Dream was locking most of his men behind the metal, because that meant he was locking most of the_ Antarctic Empire’s _men down there as well. Dream was sacrificing them to take out Phil and his men._

_Sapnap screamed his throat raw before finally realizing why he was even down here in the first place. He had to get as many of their people as possible and try to escape._

_He hadn’t been successful. Not really._

_There wasn’t much to save bar the corpses, split and mangled in all sorts of ways. He’d never managed to find Tommy._

_Sapnap assumed the young hybrid was among those dead and so he left, placing his palms on the barricading door and letting them heat up until the lock of the metal melted away. Then he ran._

It was still a shock to him that Tommy wasn’t dead. Sapnap had been miserable, yes- the kind of weight in ones chest that came when a family member died or a beloved pet ran away- but he had quickly accepted it and was waiting for an appropriate time to mourn. Such was grievance in the fast-paced environment of war.

He looked into Tommy’s sharp, sad blue eyes and bit his lip. 

_Where’s Dream?_

Sapnap didn’t know. Probably far, far away by now, surrounded by a handful of people who followed Dream and only Dream with a suffocating kind of loyalty.

~~(That had been Sapnap, just a few weeks ago.)~~

“He’s…. gone.” The pyromancer said carefully. He had to choose his words with caution. Tommy- He wasn’t sure if Tommy had broken free from Dream’s old guard just yet.

Tommy’s ears went back, his eyes wide. “He died?!”

“No!” Sapnap burst. Maybe he hadn’t been tactful enough. Shit, he never was particularly good with his words. “No, Dream’s fine. He just- he’s not around here anymore, Tommy.”

“Oh.” Tommy’s tone turned considering, accepting. “He left us in the chaos.”

“Well-“ And when Tommy said it, it _stung._ Tommy had known that Dream would be leaving. Sapnap- well, Sapnap thought Dream cared enough about him to not abandon him.

~~This wasn’t supposed to happen to you. Tommy, maybe, but not you.~~

“Shut up,” Sapnap hissed, and Tommy instantly shied back and hopped away from him.

“Not you!” Sapnap explained quickly, earning a sour look from the boy as he sighed. “Just talking to- ah, forget it. It’s you’n me now, Toms.”

Tommy nodded, turning his gaze downwards. “Yeah, ‘n everything is gone.”

“We have, uh-“ Sapnap fumbled to find some sort of comfort, anything- but the only thing they had were the clothes on their backs and the weapons that they’d drawn for war. Sapnap didn’t think that netherite would provide Tommy much comfort- Tommy, who wanted to run and jump and spend countless hours in the underground observatory with his mentor just looking at the lights.

Wait.

“You wanna see something, Tommy?” Sapnap asked, pushing himself up and looking upwards. The branches of the trees tangled together to form a forest roof, blocking the sky from view. Tommy gave a curious look in answer.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Tommy nodded at that and took the hand that Sapnap offered, pulling himself up with a sort of disorientation. That was the funny thing about Tommy- his balance changed on the regular, shifting with his ever-changing set of hybrid traits that blended and changed so as to make it indistinguishable what all he was composed of. It was something they had to work on, adjusting their training for whether it was a day of catlike grace or the lumbering brutality of a much wider-set and muscular animal.

Sapnap led Tommy eastward, towards where the tree line broke and faded into prairie. Before they emerged from the underbrush, Sapnap placed his hands over Tommy’s eyes.

“Oi, what the ‘ell are you doin’?” He threatened, blindly waving his claws around in a way that both boys knew would never make contact. Sapnap giggled.

“Do you trust me?”

“Sure, big man, sure.”

“Then start walking. You lead, I’ll guide you.”

Tommy did, Sapnap navigating him around the tree roots and away from briars until they were a ways out in the field. Sapnap then guided Tommy down to lay on his back and stretched out in the grass beside him.

“Okay, you can look now.”

Tommy opened his eyes to a vast expanse of stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (:
> 
> this one’s for those of you who were wondering what the fuck is going on with sapnap (initially he was using tommy like dream was and just training him, but then he formed a genuine bond with tommy and ultimately gave up his undying loyalty to dream in favor of his updated morals. im a sucker for found family and theyre brothers your honor)


	10. Survivalist

Tommy’s breath left him as he looked up at the sky. Sure, Tommy had been out at night before- but always beneath the cover of the trees, or when there was a job to do and something else to hold his attention. He had never quite _looked_ like this. 

Sapnap’s nervous shifting next to him was audible. “I know you like the observatory, and there’s not much we can do about it being gone now, but. Uh. This is the real thing, you know, I figured we could lay out here and it’d be like when we lay on the bunker floor to look at the lights.”

Tommy glanced at his companion, expression bright and so unabashedly _young_ that it made Sapnap do a double take.

Tommy’s version of sentimentality was different from Sapnap’s, though, and he shot a teasing remark at the other despite his euphoria.

“What, like a sleepover? Like two brothers havin’ a sleepover, is that what we are? Sapnap wants to have a little slumber party under the stars?”

And Sapnap spluttered, but he laughed anyways and lightly slugged Tommy in the shoulder. “Oh, shut up! You’re so awful, I was being nice to you!”

“You’re just so easy to bully!” Tommy squealed, prodding Sapnap in the side and wriggling away from the retaliating hands. “Stoppit!”

Tommy tried to catch Sapnap’s hand in his own when the pokes and jabs did not, in fact, stop, and that turned into a midnight wrestling match. They grappled and tussled on the ground until both boys were panting with shreds of leaves in their hair and microscopic cuts from the grass.

“Draw?” Sapnap proposed, and Tommy nodded. That was enough of a truce to ease them both back into laying on the ground.

Tommy didnt realize that he’d fallen asleep until he was blinking sunlight from his eyes. Sapnap’s low rumble of a snore was going steady beside to him.

Tommy pushed himself up, cracked the joints sore from sleeping on the dirt outside, and glanced around. They needed to eat if they were going to travel safely.

The woods were his best bet, so he tracked back towards the trees and wandered amongst them until he heard the angry squawking of a protective bird. 

Tommy stamped down his sharp-toothed smirk in favor of gliding forward on steady, soft steps. When he reached the base of the same tree that the bird was nestled in, he sunk his claws into the bark.

Tommy kicked his feet up, swinging to press against the trunk of the tree, and began his ascent. The bird took flight.

It took a bit to find what she was defending- a clutch of eggs. Not much, but it’d do for now. Tommy gathered the nest in one arm and began working his way back down.

Sapnap was still asleep when he got back. Tommy nudged him with his foot.

“Get up, loser, I need your fire.” Tommy grumbled, giving him another push.

Sapnap sat up with a confused grunt, blinking against the morning sunlight and looking around in a disoriented manner. 

Now that it was light, Tommy was able to see just how shit Sapnap looked. The cuts on his face from the night prior were particularly nasty.

“We got a lotta stuff to do,” Tommy pointed out, raising up the crumbling bird’s nest, “And you’re acting like you have no survival skills. Fire please.”

Sapnap pressed the dry grass aside so the whole field wouldn’t catch and held his palm out. A low flame sparked to life and Tommy held the eggs out to lay in the hot palm.

“What’s the plan, then, Sir Survivalist?” Sapnap grumbled, scrutinizing the bird eggs. 

“We eat, then keep walking away from here, find a body of moving water to make a camp by. And soon, you need to get your cuts cleaned up. Claws are gross.”

“ _You’re_ gross.”

Tommy shrugged and sat down, taking one of the little eggs once he deemed it cooked enough to not kill them. “Whatever, Sapnap.”

“Why are we eating eggs like some kind of wild animal?” Sapnap grumbled, extinguishing his fire and going to divide up the eggs between them despitehis complaining. “We should fish.”

“We need water to do that. In order to find water we need to have energy, dumbass.”

Sapnap grunted and cracked one of the eggs into his mouth.

“...These taste like shit.”

“Yeah.” Tommy agreed flatly, wiping his hands off as he finished. Sapnap followed shortly after.

“Good to get goin’, then?” 

Tommy agreed.

So they walked. It was mostly just companionable silence, mutual understanding that they shouldn’t be too loud because Arctic soldiers could still be looking to pick off stragglers. Plains turned to hills turned to woods, and still the pair trekked on through the biomes until they _finally_ found water.

“Listen!” Tommy whispered, tugging on Sapnap’s uninjured arm. “A creek, somewhere ahead!”

“I only hear leaves in the wind, Tommy-“ Sapnap started, only to sigh and trot after the younger as he shot forward.

When Sapnap caught up, the blond was on his knees by a babbling brook with his hands cupped to lift water to his mouth. The water was nice and clear, and Sapnap crouched down next to Tommy to scrub away the dried blood that had crusted along his cheek after he got a drink himself.

It was a pleasant little place, all things considered. The foliage wasn’t too dense so it was easy to navigate, and nearby was a grove that they could set up shelter in.

“Why don’t you gather wood for a fire while I start on building us a lean-to?” Sapnap suggested. Tommy looked up, ears swiveling, and then he nodded.

“Sure thing, boss.”

The woods were peaceful, both boys flitting around each other as they did their own work within the same general area. Sapnap bent and snapped young trees for their wood- hacking at them with his knife when they were too green to break- while Tommy collected smaller branches off the ground. 

By the time he finished a little base, the wound on Sapnap’s arm was hurting terribly. Tommy was nearby arranging rocks and branches and dried leaves around the ground to form a place for a campfire, so Sapnap allowed himself a moment to rest.

The pyromancer returned to the creek, crouching down on its bed and rolling up his sleeve to reveal the makeshift bandaging of his shoulder. Blood soaked through the white fabric of what had once been his favorite bandanna. Sapnap frowned.

Peeling it away made him hiss out in pain. Tommy looked up from their camp, watching Sapnap painstakingly peel away the cloth that so desperately clung to the sticky blood of his wound. It took a few long moments of staring before Tommy cringed in sympathy and looked away again.

Finally the fabric was untied and off, revealing the wound. It was a gorey gash where he’d been stabbed, open and oozing fresh blood now that the scabbing had been pulled free with the cloth. The cool breeze against warm blood was an odd sensation, sending a spire of cold into Sapnap that felt like it was going _through_ him.

He shuddered and plunged the cloth into the creek, wringing it out and watching as the water clouded red before dissipating downstream. He scrubbed it against the smooth stones of the creek floor until it was as clean as he could get it before he lifted it up to the wound on his arm.

Sapnap clenched his teeth as he carefully cleaned away at the wound with the cloth. It pulled at his skin painfully, but he didn’t have any soap or antiseptic and he _really_ needed to get it as clean as he could. 

He finished as quickly as possible, dipping the fabric back into the creek to clean out the new flecks of blood. Finally he had cleaned himself up as much as he was able to and tied the wet fabric back around the wound.

“Ready for me to light your kindling?” Sapnap called out to Tommy. The latter looked up, brushing his hands off and stepping away from the unlit campfire.

“A’yup.”

Sapnap padded over, doing his best not to drag his feet. Tommy was already starting to pick up on how much he was hurting. That was… not good. He couldn’t afford to be weak now.

“We’ll have to be careful,” Sapnap started as he crouched down, holding his hands over the wood and igniting it. “Gotta make sure that nobody sees the smoke. We’ll keep the fire small, not light it when it’s bright outside, you know.”

Tommy nodded and crouched down by the fire, holding his hands out and looking up to what sky was visible through the trees. It was painted gray with oncoming dusk. “I think I’m gonna go hunting before it gets too late. Lotsa animals out at this time.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No, you won’t.” Tommy’s words were more pointed than Sapnap had ever heard them, and he scowled.

“Why not?”

“You got stabbed an’ shit, you’re walking all funny like one leg’s botherin’ you, and your face looks like you got mauled by a bear. You can stay right here.”

“There’s no way I’m getting bossed around by a child.” Sapnap’s words were dark as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Tommy gave a toothy grin.

“You know, you could make us some tools. Between the two of us all we have is a buncha knives, I think we need a bit more than that to live off the land.”

Sapnap only glowered. Tommy took that as acceptance and hopped up. 

“Besides, you humans are all noisy. You’d scare away everything.” The blond waved his hand. Sapnap really wanted to char the fucker.

“I’m not even fully human.” Sapnap complained. Bad was _definitely_ at least mostly a demon, Sapnap was pretty sure his mother was a blaze hybrid- a half-human and a quarter-human did not make a full human.

Tommy only snickered.

 _Gods,_ was Tommy like an annoying younger brother. This was akin to a shitty game of house, a much more dire version of the friendly game Sapnap had played as a toddler with George and D-

He ended those thoughts abruptly and folded his arms over his chest crossly. Tommy was already gearing up to leave.

“Don’t get caught, or whatever.” Sapnap huffed. Tommy only shrugged before prowling off into the woods.

Sapnap was alone.

He fell backwards into the grass, trying to pay no mind to the jolt of pain that spiked up his shoulder. What did he even need to make for them?

 _So much_ , his mind provided. _You guys have nothing._

“Shush.” Sapnap scolded aloud. “I’m talking about the bare minimum to survive.”

Sapnap could fashion something to purify the creek water, that should probably be first on the list. Both him and Tommy had already drank from the brook- it looked good enough for now, and moving bodies of water were always safer than a lake so they’d probably be fine- but if they were staying here long term, they needed to clean any water they were going to be using. They also needed an axe. They needed a _lot_ of things, really, but most all else could wait.

With great effort, Sapnap heaved himself up. Immediately his hand went to clutch at his shoulder.

He scavenged the river bed for a smooth stone, large enough to fit in both hands yet not too big. Hefting it up _hurt_ so he just rolled it over to a nice patch of dirt and sat down before it.

Sapnap placed his hands on the top center of the stone, fingers splayed out, and allowed his palms to heat up far past the realm of a normal human being.

It took more effort than he would like to admit, melting through the rock. It was worth it, though- he wasn’t harmed by the heat, and therefore was able to melt the center of the rock and mold the magma. Nether hybrid’s pottery.

He managed to fashion a bowl out of the stone, dunking it in the creek when he was satisfied with the shape. Steam billowed up into the air and it sizzled as cool creek contacted molten rock.

When the bowl was sufficiently cooled, he held it in the creek and allowed water to run into it. When it was full, he moved it back into the camping area. 

Sapnap rose to snap a leaf off its stem- broad and large, he stuck it in the mud so it held over the bowl. The leaf’s tip pointed downward and just over the dirt.

Sapnap lit a fire beneath the bowl of water, watching blankly as it began to pop and come to a boil. As he waited for steam to rise, he began searching for a second, smaller stone.

Melding a cup was easier the second time around. Sapnap rinsed it in the creek and positioned it under the point of the leaf tip.

Waiting for water to collect was, predictably, boring. The umbrella of the leaf caught the steam so it didn’t rise into the sky, and the cool night air allowed it to condensate and form dewdrops. Every now and again, a droplet would get big enough that it rolled down the plant’s vein and dripped into the cup.

Sapnap huffed, waiting for Tommy to return. This would take a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love all the comments i get so much !! <3 especially the analytical/theory ones u guys bring so much serotonin


	11. The Lighthouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pleasant trip takes a turn.

Tommy’s return was accompanied with a hunted rabbit slung over his shoulder. He and Sapnap ate in peace by the campfire- and soon minutes turned into hours and further turned into days.

Starting over was hard. Sapnap frequently cut his hands sharpening stones to make tools, Tommy got burned once trying to get iron out of their makeshift kiln when Sapnap was angry. They were making it, though- they had a full set of tools, clean water, a place to sleep. Sapnap knew how to make soap from herbs and animal fat, so they were clean; Their lean-to even upgraded to something bigger and more stable, and a bed had been made by piling wool and furs onto the floor of their shelter.

So, all things considered, it could be worse. The pair might be war criminals separated from their pack and easy to pick off should they be caught, but for now life was alright.

One thing that Tommy noticed was that he no longer referred to his room in the bunker as his home. At some point, he had shifted to calling it his dome instead. He still grieved his blankets, and his books, and even Dream- but he had Sapnap and long nights spent play fighting and splashing each other in the creek.

So things were okay.

It was a pleasant day out, the air warming in the comfortable limbo between spring and summer. The creek babbled near them as the brothers sat doing their own tasks.

Sapnap snapped a piece of cord when he finished binding the handle of an axe to its blade. He had a makeshift bandage on his face, to protect the healing cut from infection- and they didn't have any medical tape or bandages, so it was fixed awkwardly to the cheek with his headband. When he was done tying off the cord, he spoke. "Do you think we'll end up staying here? Living in the woods forever?"

Tommy emitted an amused huff. He was sliding a stone wedge along the fleshy part of a deer pelt, preparing the hide for tanning. "I don't know. It's not like we weren't hermetic when we were living with Dream."

"I like it here." Sapnap mused. "It's peaceful. I'm just worried that we're still too close to the bunker."

"Leaving is just as dangerous as staying," Tommy pointed out. "We could hit a patrol, or a village that hunts hybrids. Or we could get separated."

"We won't get separated." Sapnap chuffed, waving a hand in dismissal. "Our powers make us both very useful as lighthouses."

Tommy blinked. "What's a lighthouse?"

"You-" Sapnap gawked before seeming to realize that he played a bystanding role in Tommy's isolation. He shook himself out. "It's- it's a really tall building, by the ocean. It projects light for the ships, so they know where the shore is at night."

"Why is that us?"

“My fire, your lightning. We’re like living beacons, except cooler.”

Tommy set the wedge down and moved to stretch the pelt over the wooden frame that had been built for drying animal hides. “Maybe. But if the ship gets too close, won’t it hit the rocks and sink?”

“You’re looking too deep into the metaphor.”

“Maybe it’s just a dumb metaphor.”

Sapnap rolled his eyes, grabbing a fistful of leaf litter and throwing it at Tommy. Most of it fell short and fluttered to the ground uselessly, and when only a miniscule few shreds of mulch drifted down to settle in Tommy’s hair, the boy raised his eyebrows in an unimpressed look.

“You’re so stupid,” Tommy sneered, and Sapnap recognized the minute adjusting of the younger’s muscles in time to roll to the side when he pounced.

“How’d you-“ Tommy spluttered, pushing himself up and lunging for Sapnap again as he spat out leaf litter. “Get back here, damnit!”

Sapnap howled in laughter, kicking up mulch aimed for Tommy’s face as he scrabbled away. “You forget how much we’ve fought! I know you!”

Tommy emitted a playful growl and sat up as he recollected himself. Instead of pouncing yet again, though, his hands came forward and a wildly wavering arc of blue shot from his palms.

Sapnap yelped as the shock traveled through him. It didn’t hurt, not really; but it did make his muscles seize uncomfortably, a loss of autonomy that felt akin to the tightening of a reflexive kick following a tap to the knee. Next thing he knew he was being bowled over by a cackling blond pile of limbs and muscle and sharp joints.

“Get off me!” Sapnap shrieked, his palm finding Tommy’s face and shoving. Tommy laughed again and opened his mouth in a threatening grin that bared fangs; his teeth crackled with electricity and Sapnap barely managed to yank his hand away as Tommy snapped.

Sapnap wedged his feet against Tommy’s chest and kicked, throwing what was essentially an electrified puppy unaware of his own strength off of him and across the dirt. The brunet leapt to his feet and jabbed a finger at Tommy. “Play nice, it’s like you’re trying to kill me.”

Tommy got up and brushed himself off, acting all innocent and unaffected. Sapnap knew that he was nervous, though, looking as if he was anticipating more than a scolding with the shy shuffle of his feet. “Yeah, well, maybe you’re just weak. Bitch.”

“We can play without burning or shocking each other.” Sapnap folded his arms over his chest, expression narrowing in a scrutinizing look. Tommy was decidedly looking anywhere except for at him.

“Yeah, whatever. How ‘bout food, we got food?”

Sapnap accepted the abrupt subject change for what it was and let his arms fall to his side. "Yeah. The rest of that deer you're working on has been salted, dried, and stored. If you want something other than jerky, we can fish."

Tommy groaned. "Is meat all we got around here?"

"There's... dandelions?"

That earned him a nasty look from Tommy. Sapnap only shrugged. 

The blonde stretched his arms above his head and looked to the side, out of the camp and towards the shadow of the woods. "Why don't we look for something that's _not_ terrible?"

“Such as?”

“It’s a forest. There’s probably berries somewhere.”

Sapnap grumbled but got up, padding over to where Tommy was waiting like a dog for a walk; excited, bright-eyed, a funny little glint to his expression and pacing with uncontained energy.

Sapnap ruffled the younger’s hair as he passed forward into the woods. “I can’t believe you’re having me go on a funny little field trip into the forest with you this late when we have perfectly good food here.”

Tommy skipped after him, clawed hands swinging with every bounce. “You love me.”

Sapnap rolled his eyes playfully and emitted a puff of air through his teeth. “Whatever, brat.”

Tommy ducked beneath Sapnap’s arm and dove ahead, lifting a bough of broad leaves to see if the bush below had anything bearable. It didn’t, and he continued on again.

Sapnap turned his gaze up, checking the trees while the blond rustled among the ground. They fell into companionable silence as they meandered about the wilderness.

It didn’t take too long before a flash of color caught Sapnap’s attention. It was easy to miss, a faded persian red amongst the leaves, but upon closer inspection he found it was fruit.

Sapnap trotted closer, breaking the branch and taking the small thing in his hands. The tree it came from had more, familiar little bundles of red and yellow. 

“Tommy, I found crab apples!”

The younger appeared beside him in a matter of seconds. It nearly scared Sapnap out of his skin- a gentle rustle was the only sign that Tommy had swept over with inhumane swiftness.

“Crab apples?” Tommy asked curiously, leaning forward to grab fistfuls of the fruit. He ripped them off their branches, the leaves shaking and rustling against each other. Sapnap bit into his own apple, unflinching as the sour taste bathed his tongue.

Tommy watched him before shoving a fistful into his own mouth. Immediately, he spluttered at the taste and coughed.

Sapnap failed to stifle the laughter at Tommy’s expression, which earned him a slap to the chest and suddenly the two were scuffling on the forest floor with their snacks forgotten.

This was a much friendlier play fight; no powers, no burns or shocks threatening to snatch the lighthearted mood away with an injury. Tommy tried to wriggle away from Sapnap while the latter grabbed in an attempt to catch the younger in a pin.

Somewhere off in the distance, though, a crack sounded. It was terribly faint, but immediately, both stilled.

Two hybrids both hearing the same sound. With the heightened senses of an inhuman bloodline, it was impossible not to catch that something was amiss. Sapnap and Tommy both exchanged glances.

They pulled away from each other and got to their feet. Sapnap’s hand found his belt where his dagger had been tucked away. Tommy lowered his head like a hunting wolf and drew his shoulders up to his chin, tensing in preparation for an attack.

“Split up and investigate,” Sapnap whispered to Tommy. “I think they’ve found us. It’ll be easier to hide if we’re not together.”

Tommy nodded. There was a heaviness in his gaze, a hidden fear that Sapnap only caught because he knew the younger so well.

The pyromancer rested a hand on Tommy’s shoulder and offered a reassuring smile. “I still got your back, I promise. It’s getting dark, just signal for me if you get backed into a corner.”

Tommy nodded and slunk in the opposite direction from Sapnap. He kept close to the shadows, eyes narrowed to slits to minimize the cutting blue of his gaze. 

He traced an arcing path through the trees, circling around to where the sound had come from. As he neared, Tommy was able to pick up the low buzz of voices.

“...Hard to navigate.”

”I hate warm forests, the underbrush gets too dense.”

“I agree. Maybe that’s what the greenhouse was for. It wasn’t actually a greenhouse but a training area.”

“That would make sense, that thing was like a jungle. We couldn’t get in to see if anything useful was left there.”

Tommy continued to creep closer, staying hidden in the shadows. His movements were accompanied with catlike silence.

“That whole bunker was offputting as hell. Weird stuff. Too many useless rooms, big industrial fans, crystals growing in weird places.”

“Gave me the creeps.”

Adrenaline pumped through Tommy’s veins. He was the predator this time, the one on the offensive and the one with the upper hand. 

“You’re easily scared.”

“Am not.”

“Prove it then.”

Tommy kept low, knees bent in a hunter’s crouch. A breeze ruffled through the branches and he felt _alive_.

“What?”

“Prove you’re not scared. We’re getting nothing done like this, let’s split up and search.”

“I’m- that’s stupid, Techno! There’s war criminals out here!”

Tommy was able to make out the figure of two figures between the leaves. One turned and Tommy flinched back into the safety of the shadows.

“Coward. Can’t handle a tromp through the woods on your own?”

“Fine! You go that way then. But when we meet back up with Dad, we tell him that whatever happened was _your_ fault.”

“Sure.”

Tommy’s ear flicked as the broader figure stalked off towards where Sapnap had been. An idea was forming.

The remaining figure was tall and gangly and made not a move from where he was stood at. Tommy cupped his palms before his face and let a flash of light appear. It was gone just as quick.

When the stranger’s head snapped towards where Tommy was, the blond was already gone. Moved a good stretch away- no more than a glint of shadow above the grass.

“Who’s there?” The person demanded, stiffening. Extra limbs flared up behind them. Wings.

They failed to intimidate Tommy. He just threw another beam of light that skittered across the ground like a stray torch beam before fizzling out.

Tommy danced backwards as the stranger drew closer to investigate. 

“Techno?” They tried, tentative. Tommy’s fangs glinted as he grinned. “This isn’t funny.”

Tommy drew in a deep breath that had his chest rising with it. On the exhale, blue sparks left his nose before fizzling into nothing.

The stranger stepped closer. Tommy darted away again.

It was a game, almost. Luring the Antarctic Empire soldier away from his partner with curious blue glows. A corrupted version of cat and mouse.

Somewhere off in the distance, a _fwoom_ sounded. Tommy recognized it immediately- the woosh that came when Sapnap threw up a great blast of fire. The stranger must not have heard it because he did not turn from Tommy’s light.

The blond took that as his cue. What Sapnap had said earlier, about the lighthouse- he was right.

A lighthouse in the distance meant safety. It was a guide. And yet, a beam too near was blinding. It meant that you had gotten too close, that your ship would be thrown into the rocks and destroyed.

Tommy erupted out of the bushes with the judgement of thunder roaring in his veins.


	12. Technoblade’s Interlude II

Technoblade was thankful that he was able to get some alone time.

Sure, Wilbur was his brother. He liked the winged hybrid well enough, even when Techno had to postpone searches because of him or when he found his favorite cloak missing and incorporated in a nest. But Techno was a loner at heart and Wilbur’s incessant theorizing about Dream’s disappearance and underground colony had gotten on his nerves.

So now he was alone. The silence made it easier to focus.

It wasn’t long before Techno was able to find a hint of a trail. Following it led to a tree, half-eaten clutches of fruit left abandoned at its base.

So someone (or something) had been through here recently. Probably scared off by Wilbur’s noise. Perfect.

That was where he lost the trail. Whatever had been here must have made an effort to be sneaky, so they had capability of reason and therefore were probably-

Heat pierced through the air and Techno ducked just in time to avoid getting barbecued. The fur on his head between his ears were not spared from the flames, though, and any nearby leaves recieved a similar fate. Techno jumped up and whipped around with ash still dancing through the air.

The golden glow of Sapnap’s eyes pierced the dusk darkness. Techno raised his sword just as the demon-blaze hybrid pounced. 

Netherite sliced through the air just as a blast of fire was launched directly for his face. The attack was split in two by the slash, shooting in opposite directions before disappearing into nothing.

“You!” Techno roared, leaping to try and close the distance between him and Sapnap. The latter only leapt, jets of flame erupting from his heels and getting kicked towards him. Techno narrowly dodged. “You burned my crops!”

A muffled boom sounded off in the distance. Focused on the heat of a battle, Techno did not hear.

“And I had a blast doing it!” Sapnap howled, face split wide in a grin. He was clearly having the time of his life blazing Techno with fire when the warrior was unable to get closer and fight back. 

The forest flashed, the sky lighting up with lightning. Funny how nature works sometimes, sending storms when her children burn her.

“Stand down, Sapnap! It’ll be easier for you!”

“No thanks!”

Techno growled and ducked again. He was honestly amazed that Sapnap hadn’t set the whole forest on fire yet.

Before Techno could ponder that, though, a scream sounded off in the distance.

A _piercingly familiar_ scream.

Techno needed to get to his brother. Sapnap clearly had the same thought; all the color drained from his face and with a wild fervor he turned and started scrambling towards the sound. Sapnap even kicked fire back at Techno to keep him back as he escaped. 

Even though Techno was flush with panic, the peculiarity of that was not lost on him.

“Don’t you even _think_ about it!” Techno roared, ripping his axe from its place on his hip and throwing. It embedded in the trunk of a great oak where Sapnap had been just moments ago.

The forest lit up again, a blue glow illuminating the area. Trees cast long black shadows for the millisecond that the light had been present. With the light, another boom sounded.

Lightning never struck the same place twice.

“Wilbur!” Techno shouted, muscling his way through the undergrowth and cursing the land for getting in his way. “ _Wilbur!”_

He burst into a small clearing. Or, well- it hadn’t always been a clearing, obviously. Two stumps next to each other were blackened and even still smoking, a splintered ‘V’ formed off of them where their trunks had fallen. Wilbur was on his knees just in front of them, his hair standing on end in a too-familiar fashion.

Above him was a boy.

He had murder in his eyes and dark golden markings akin to a ferret’s that masked his features. A pale patch, almost resembling vitiligo, danced a blaze from his dark nose up to his forehead before disappearing beneath his hairline. The hair- as a whole blond, but with odd mottled patches of differing shades that ranged from dust to gold- had a snow colored streak where the white facial marking met it. Almost like a badger, if a badger was blonde and brindled and had a million other parts.

Techno gripped his sword tighter. Sapnap had disappeared into the woods and had yet to reappear- but if he were to get the jump on Techno, he’d be fucked. Wilbur looked out for the count at the moment and Techno could only hold off two hybrids with elemental powers for so long.

“Uh, Phil!” He bellowed, glancing over his shoulder towards the darkness of the forest. “I could use some help here!”

The electricity hybrid was advancing on him, stalking forward with a dangerous way about him. Techno narrowly dodged when a flash of lightning was thrown at him.

As he twisted away, he caught a waver in the shadows from his peripheral. He was barely able to inhale before Phil exploded from the underbrush, wings flapping as he tackled a roaring Sapnap out and into the open.

Sapnap was fighting to get away from Phil and over to that murderous-looking electricity hybrid, wildly throwing blasts of fire at the avian. Phil was just trying not to get too burned, which was a feat at close combat.

The electricity hybrid was clearly preparing for an attack of sorts, slower to gather up his element than Sapnap was. That meant nothing to Technoblade, as the stranger clearly was capable of attacks more powerful than some fire judging by Wilbur’s state crumpled at the base of two stumps.

The pyromancer finally escaped Phil, shooting to his feet as Techno darted over to catch him. “Tommy!” Sapnap screamed, moments before the blunt of Techno’s axe found the back of his head and he was sent a limp heap collapsing into the grass.

“Sapnap!” The electricity hybrid- Tommy, apparently- howled, stretches of energy manifesting in his fists. The static climbed higher into the sky until he had two formidable bolts of _lightning_ clutched in his hands.

Like a vengeful Zeus throwing thunder, Tommy pulled back like he was holding a javelin before launching. Techno had no reaction time before electricity was pumping through his veins.

It was _awful_. Immediately, it was like he lost control over his entire body, whole seconds where there was fire in his limbs and no move he could make to put it out. Someone smaller than him surely would not survive; Techno could only blame the boar half of him, turning to something else entirely when struck by lightning- or maybe the fact that he was big enough in general to survive the high voltage, or even the simple fact that Technoblade never dies. Regardless, he thought he felt his heart still violently in his chest for a few precious moments before starting back up at a frightening rhythm.

Techno blinked and suddenly he was on the ground, all hot and fuzzy like Wilbur had been moments ago. Wilbur, who- when Techno looked- had thankfully gotten up and was recouping next to Phil.

“It’s three on one now, we can take him!” Wilbur was saying, but the words sounded far-off and distant. Techno’s ears were ringing, but at least for once in his life the voices were quiet.

“Don’t you dare kill him, Wilbur!” Phil threatened, tone taking an aggressively paternal edge. “Look at him, that’s a kid!”

Techno was worried about the implications of talking about Tommy when he was right there. He cast his gaze up to the hybrid and felt his fears assuaged.

Tommy had an animalistic look in his eyes, pupils narrowed to slits like a frightened cat’s. His ears were pressed back flat against his head and he had a noticeably more wild aura than before. Clearly, what had happened to Sapnap had reverted him back to a feral state, the defense mechanism that hybrids took on when they were more than just afraid- so he wouldn’t be hearing anything said for a while yet. Taking him in would be like catching a wild animal.

“A kid that just about _killed_ me and Techno!” Wilbur screeched, feathers bristling. He took a step forward and Tommy took a step back. “Over _Sapnap_!”

“Wilbur!” Phil snapped, and immediately Wilbur looked down. Techno finally mustered up enough strength to heave himself to his feet with great effort. “They were using him, look at him!”

Wilbur shot a bitter, sideways glance to the boy who was stood bristling with his back pressed firmly against a tree.

“Fine.” Wilbur relented. “If he’s not dead, we take Sapnap in as a war criminal and him as a teenager getting rescued and rehabilitated. But if I get shocked again, it’s on your head.”

Satisfied, Phil nodded and stepped away from Wilbur. Now, the three had formed a triangle around Tommy- which Techno doubted was doing anything to appease the kid’s terror, but if he got away they had no hope of catching him.

“Hey,” The oldest cooed, extending a hand towards Tommy and taking a step forward. Instead of allowing him, Tommy bared his teeth.

Wilbur made a move to step closer as well now, wings lifting and stretching to make it harder to escape. He had his hands raised placatingly but Techno knew intimately the behaviors of a feral hybrid and wanted nothing to do with this rescue mission. He stayed put where he was with his arms crossed over his chest.

Sure enough, Tommy pounced on Wilbur and sunk his teeth into the exposed flesh of his forearm. Wilbur collapsed to the ground in the way that Techno found people did when they got electrocuted.

Phil startled back just as Techno stepped forward.

“Okay, enough of this.” Techno growled, hefting his axe up just as Tommy looked up from where he’d _bitten_ Wilbur with wide eyes. Moments later a crack sounded as Techno dropped the handle onto the back of his head.

Wilbur’s motions were stiff and erratic as he extracted himself from underneath a now-unconscious Tommy’s form. Phil folded his arms over his chest and shot a scolding look at Techno.

“That was unnecessary.”

“You say that, but you weren’t the one getting electrocuted.” Techno growled, slipping his axe back into its place and moving to pick up Tommy. “Wilbur, if you’re done playing lightning rod, go find the horses and check that Sapnap isn’t dead.”

“On it.”

Phil sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as Techno hefted up the form of one gangly hybrid and slung him over his shoulder. Moments later, Wilbur returned with three leads and their three horses.

Techno grabbed rope but Phil stuck a hand out before he could tie Tommy to the back of the saddle.

“That’s unnecessary, I’ll keep him untied on my horse.”

Techno shrugged and moved to set Tommy there, leaning him upright but slouched against the horse’s neck so that he’d be in front of Phil on the saddle. “Sure, but it’s your funeral.”

“You hit him hard as hell, Technoblade, he’ll definitely be out still by the time we get back.”

Techno, now unwilling to communicate with words, simply grunted and moved to bind Sapnap’s hands and feet once Wilbur had assured him that he was, in fact, still breathing.

Sapnap got tied to Techno’s horse, a red smear in the grass where he’d been left. Soon enough they were setting out back home.

“I’d say that was successful, boys!” Phil chirped, clapping his hands together around Tommy’s limp form. Both Wilbur and Techno groaned.

“Easy for you to say,” Wilbur answered mutinously. His grip on the reins tightened. “You weren’t struck by lightning for a second and then _third_ time by the same gremlin teenager.”

Techno rumbled his agreement.

“We came to clear out the surrounding area of stragglers and we’re coming home with Dream’s left hand man. Put him in a cell and eventually we’ll get _some_ kind of information. Win.”

“We also now have another mouth to feed and give therapy.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“Sure, Dadza.” Wilbur rolled his eyes and slipped into silence, irritation radiating off of him in tense waves.

Techno swallowed in nervous anticipation of the next few days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/fishstixx_) to scream at me about this au if you’d like!


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